The US President has announced funding for the country's first nuclear power plant in nearly three decades.
He's offering federal loan guarantees for building two new reactors in the southern state of Georgia.
They'd be the first to be built in the US in almost 30 years.
Though nuclear power stations currently supply 20% of U.S. electricity, existing plants are often old and some are operating beyond their intended life span. The President said:
“This one plant, for example, will cut carbon pollution by 16 million tons each year when compared to a similar coal plant. That’s like taking 3.5 million cars off the road.
The announcement is part of Obama's push for clean energy and an economic recovery led by green jobs.
Around 3,000 new construction jobs will be created in the short term if construction of the reactors goes forward, with a further 800 permanent positions to be created upon completion
The White House says in supporting nuclear energy Obama’s signalling to opposition Republicans that he understands whatever’s done on energy must have cross-party support.
The President called for new nuclear power plants in January's State of the Union address when he said:
"That means building a new generation of safe, clean, nuclear power plants in this country."
A Gallup poll from last year shows a majority of Americans support the use of nuclear energy with 59% favouring its use including 27% who strongly favour it.
Environmentalists like Washington based Kevin Kamps from the campaign group Beyond Nuclear say that the support has been bought by the rich and influential nuclear industry lobby.
"The nuclear power industry seeks to gobble up the lion's share of Federal support for new energy initiatives and it will be to the detriment of renewable and efficiency. So we're really at a crossroads and we should chose the real answers to the climate crisis which are wind power, solar power, geothermal - energy efficiency is the lowest hanging fruit but it's so often neglected."
There are also concerns about what will happen to the waste produced by the new plants in Georgia.
Yucca Mountain in Nevada is the only site in the United States approved for development as a deep geological nuclear waste dump. But the Obama administration cancelled plans to develop the site last year amid stiff opposition from Nevada’s representatives in Congress.
Environmentalists support that but admit it still leaves the problem of what to do about all the nuclear waste produced since nuclear energy began in the US back in the 1950s - sparking concerns that the government is looking towards its nuclear future before dealing with its toxic past.
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