The Obama Administration announced this morning the first federal loan guarantee for the construction of a nuclear plant.

The $8 billion guarantee will be awarded to Southern Co. to build two reactors in Georgia at the existing nuclear site of the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant.

The loan guarantee places Southern Co. at the forefront of the so-called nuclear renaissance in this country. North Carolina's publicly held power companies -- Progress Energy in Raleigh and Duke Energy in Charlotte -- both have applied for licenses to build new nuclear reactors but are at least several years from being ready to begin construction.