US to vote on first N-plant since 1978

US regulators are considering a plan to build the nation's first nuclear power plant in a generation.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is set to vote on Thursday on Southern Co's request to build two new reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia.

If approved, the $14 billion reactors could begin operating as soon as 2016 and 2017.

The NRC last approved construction of a nuclear plant in 1978, a year before a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania raised fears of a radiation release and brought new reactor orders nearly to a halt.

The planned reactors are the remnants of a once-anticipated building boom that the power industry dubbed the "nuclear renaissance."