BEIJING, June 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Presumptive Republican U.S. presidential candidate Sen. John McCain on Wednesday called for the construction of 45 new nuclear reactors by 2030 and promised 2 billion U.S. dollars a year in federal funds "to make clean coal a reality," measures designed to reduce dependence on foreign oil.

    McCain said the 104 nuclear reactors currently operating around the country produce about 20 percent of the nation's annual electricity needs.

    "Every year, these reactors alone spare the atmosphere from the equivalent of nearly all auto emissions in America. Yet for all these benefits, we have not broken ground on a single nuclear plant in over thirty years," he said. "And our manufacturing base to even construct these plants is almost gone."

    Even so, he said he would set the country on a course to build 45 new ones by 2030, with a longer-term goal of adding another 55 in the future.

    "We will need to recover all the knowledge and skills that have been lost over three stagnant decades in a highly technical field," he conceded.

    With the 2 billion dollars in federal funds, he said, "We will build the demonstration plants, refine the techniques and equipment, and make clean coal a reality. This single achievement will open vast amounts of our oldest and most abundant resource. And it will deliver not only electricity but jobs to some of the areas hardest hit by our economic troubles."

    (Agencies)