WASHINGTON - US public support for expanding nuclear power appears to be slipping after Japan's nuclear crisis while New York's governor said on Tuesday an aging plant near New York City will be the top priority in a federal review of earthquake risk to such facilities.

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President Barack Obama last year announced loan guarantees to build the first US nuclear power plant in nearly three decades. But the nuclear disaster triggered by Japan's 9.0 magnitude earthquake may be making US citizens less inclined to embrace more nuclear energy due to safety fears.

In a poll released on Monday by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, 52 percent of 1,004 US adults surveyed from March 17 to 20 said they oppose the expansion of nuclear power now, up from 47 percent last October.

A poll of 814 US adults released on Tuesday by the Civil Society Institute, which has been critical of nuclear energy, found that less than half of those questioned - 46 percent - said they support more nuclear power reactors in the United States, and 44 percent oppose new reactors.

Fifty-eight percent of those questioned said they are less supportive of expanding nuclear power in the US than they were a month ago. The poll was conducted on March 15 to 16.

"The Fukushima nuclear reactor disaster in Japan is causing a renewed and intensifying skepticism about the future of nuclear power," said Pam Solo, president of the Civil Society Institute, based in Newton, Massachusetts.

Many Americans have harbored safety concerns about nuclear power since the 1979 disaster at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has pledged to make the Indian Point nuclear power plant north of New York City their top priority in a review of seismic risk at US nuclear plants.

Indian Point owner Entergy Corp purchased a full-page advertisement in The New York Times on Tuesday touting comments by US Energy Secretary Steve Chu saying that the reactor is safe and an NRC report saying all US nuclear plants remain safe.

Reuters