President Barack Obama has announced more than $8bn (£5bn) of federal loan guarantees to help build the first US nuclear power stations 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 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.

There are currently 104 operating nuclear reactors across 31 states in the US, which provide about a fifth of the country’s electricity.

Meanwhile, there are currently 56 new nuclear reactors being built around the world.

This one plant will cut carbon pollution by 16 million tons each year when compared with a similar coal plant - it won’t persuade all the environmentalists, but it is an argument that does weigh heavily with some of them - Mark Mardell

A tad more progress then.

All the best.

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