The nuclear plant's construction, part of Duke Energy's ongoing effort to diversify energy production in the U.S., is estimated to take a decade, require 4,000 workers and could cost around $12 million (the company hasn't released their cost projections yet). Once the plant is complete, it will employ 800 people.

It's been 13 years since the last nuclear plant in the U.S. was built.

The proposed plant, what the state is touting as a “21st century clean-energy production center,” will replace a former gaseous diffusion enrichment facility at a U.S. Department of Energy site in Piketon. That complex was closed in 2001, eliminating nearly 600 jobs.

The new plant is expected to take more than a decade to build and will employ 4,000 workers during construction and up to 800 workers when it is fully operational, a source told Columbus Business First, a sister publication of the Charlotte Business Journal.

Read more from The Charlotte Business Journal.

Many are opposed to nuclear, however. For one thing, we need energy solutions NOW. Hello sun. Hello wind. Hello ocean. Not to mention worries over the potential for horrific disasters should anything go wrong at the nuclear plant. (Remember Chernobyl? How about Three Mile Island? And, what to do with the nuclear waste?)

It will be interesting to see what the eco-community's response will be and to witness the regulatory and construction process.

While nuclear power is hotly contested, there are a few things no one can deny: We love electricity, we use more and more of it all the time and we're in this together.

As a society, we must figure out how to do two things: 1) Curb our usage through higher efficiency standards and a commitment to use less energy individually, and 2) Create, promote and adopt new ways to harness energy so we can break our oil and coal addictions.