The plant could replace about seven million barrels a year, if it operated as efficiently as most American reactors.

The first major accident in an American nuclear reactor occurred at a small prototype military plant in Idaho in 1961.

In contrast, American reactors run on "enriched" uranium, which is 2 or 3 percent uranium-235.

Do you still insist on buying American nuclear reactors?

American reactors use uranium that has been painstakingly enriched, carrying three times as much fissionable material as is found in nature.

Existing American reactors require 11 million to 12 million of these units a year; the new plant will produce 3 million.

The number of American reactors is declining, and the figure may drop faster with utility deregulation.

Such reactors are not enclosed airtight, as are almost all American and other Western reactors.

Nevertheless, American reactors have had their share of problems.

Pigford concluded that the plant, which was being used to make plutonium for nuclear bombs, was less safe than the American commercial nuclear reactors.