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Power to the people: New nuke in South Carolina's future?

With new federal incentives to build commercial nuclear reactors, two Southern electric utilities have announced that they're making plans for construction of one of the first such power plants in decades. The facility, a joint project of Duke Power Co. of Charlotte, N.C., and Atlanta-based Southern Co., would be built near Gaffney, S.C., at a cost of between $4 billion and $6 billion. The partners expect to apply for a building permit late next year or early in 2008. It could take up to 12 years for the plant, which would have a projected staff of 800 full-time employees, to become operational. The states that rely most heavily on nuclear power, with the percentage of electricity that comes from nuclear plants in each:
1. Vermont 73.7%
2. South Carolina 54.5%
3. Connecticut 54.4%
4. New Jersey 51.9%
5. Illinois 50.1%
6. New Hampshire 43.0%
7. Pennsylvania 36.2%
8. Virginia 33.6%
9. North Carolina 32.0%
10. Arizona 30.2%
- Nuclear Energy Institute/ Associated Press