China's Nuclear Strategy

China, the world's second-biggest energy consumer, and Westinghouse Electric Co. started building the first of several nuclear power plants in the eastern province of Shandong.

The Shandong Nuclear Power Co. and Westinghouse broke ground on the project in Haiyang city Tuesday, a month earlier than scheduled, the companies said in a joint press release carried by PR News Wire.

Westinghouse and France's Areva SA are competing to build as many as 26 reactors by the end of the next decade as China turns to atomic energy to cut pollution and reduce its reliance on oil.

Construction on two reactors in Sanmen in the eastern province of Zhejiang began in February, the release said.

So what about the U.S. what's the hold up?