**President Obama has announced more than $8bn (£5bn) of federal loan guarantees to help build the first new nuclear power stations in the US for 30 years.**Two new plants are to be constructed in the state of Georgia by US electricity firm Southern Company.
President Obama said the plants would be “safe and clean” and were needed to meet the country’s future energy needs.
There have been no new nuclear power plants built in the US since the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island.
The accident was caused by the partial core meltdown of the one of the reactors at the site in Pennsylvania, which resulted in a release of radioactive gases into the atmosphere.
‘Well-paid jobs’
The president said the project would create “thousands of construction jobs over eight years and then hundreds of well-paid jobs” when the facilities become operational.
He added that it was “only the beginning” of efforts to develop a new generation of safe and clean energy-efficient technologies, which would help fight climate change.
The two new reactors will be built at an existing nuclear facility in Georgia.
Southern said the work would create about 3,000 construction jobs and 850 people would subsequently be permanently employed when the reactors became operational.
There are currently 104 operating nuclear reactors across 31 states in the US, which provide about one-fifth of the country’s electricity.