CORVALLIS, Ore. - Jose Reyes' research lab looks like a three-story tangle of pipes and instruments. But to nuclear engineers like him, it's evidence that generating electricity by splitting atoms can cost less and be done more safely than in the past.

Reyes heads an Oregon State University team that's built a quarter-scale model of the Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear plant - which the company hopes will lead an atomic-energy renaissance in the U.S. and the rest of the world.

Even though the lab looks complicated, the model is far simpler than the plants built in the 20th century. Without using radioactive material, it tests the AP1000's "passive-safety" system, which relies on gravity rather than a battery of mechanical pumps to carry water to a reactor in an emergency.

The safety system, Reyes said, would make nuclear leaks far less likely and virtually eliminate the threat of a meltdown of the nuclear core. The simpler, modular design will help bring down the cost of construction and make overruns less likely.

Interest in new plants has increased sharply since August 2005, when President Bush signed an energy bill that streamlines applications and offers loan incentives, tax credits and federal insurance for new plants. Licensing could be approved within a few years, depending on when applications are filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

But there are plenty of skeptics. They point out that because the AP1000 and ESBRW have not yet been built, it's still uncertain how much they will cost or how safe they will actually be.

"It's been tested in scale models," David Lochbaum, director of a nuclear safety project for the Union of Concerned Scientists, said of the passive-safety system.

The model at Oregon State was built to test how the passive-safety design would hold up during all sorts of emergencies that would require a quick shutdown of the reactor - even without human intervention.

The cooling system in the previous generation of reactors operated much like a car radiator, requiring constant pumping of cool water to prevent overheating.

In the passive-safety designs, the cooling system is more like the tank of a toilet. Flip a single handle and cool water rushes down to the reactor if it overheats. Designers say that if the operator needs to leave the plant during an accident, that handle will be tripped automatically and the reactor will cool itself.

Estimates on the cost of new reactors vary widely, and it is difficult to compare current costs with past projects that required years to build and many design modifications, analysts say.

Right now, Reyes said, "there's a single U.S. manufacturer of large nuclear components, and we're buying most large replacement components from France. We must also rebuild the skilled work force needed to construct nuclear plants."

"We were promised that the plants could not explode and we got Chernobyl," Kafoury said. "We were told they could not melt down and we got Three Mile Island. Now the industry says they can get it right. Why on Earth should anybody believe them?"

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