The United States and Russia have broken a logjam that clears the way for each country to build a plant that would turn weapons-grade plutonium into fuel for nuclear reactors, two South Carolina congressmen said on Tuesday.

Proposals call for the U.S. plant to be built at Savannah River Site near Aiken. The plant is expected to pump millions of dollars into the state's economy over the course of decades, while taking steps toward nuclear disarmament and making use of tons of radioactive material now stored at SRS.

"It's the biggest change in the Savannah River Site since its inception," U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said. "It will create hundreds of new jobs and it will make the world safer -- something for all of us to be proud of."

Fifth District U.S. Rep. John Spratt, D-York, said in an interview that a deal had been reached on the plants and Graham later confirmed it in a press release, calling it a "preliminary agreement."

Spratt said plans for the U.S. and Russian plants bogged down as the countries haggled over who would be liable if the U.S.-designed plant failed in Russia.

But an agreement was reached at the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, last month after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice took over negotiations from her undersecretary John Bolton, Spratt said.

"They (the Russians) say, 'If you're going to be the design engineer, you should have design engineering liability,'" Spratt said. "While we might be able to live with that, we wouldn't want to have our liability litigated in a foreign court."

Graham said in his press release that "the liability provisions deal with American workers helping construct the Russian facility in Siberia." He also said he appreciated Rice's work on the issue.

Several European countries have been producing mixed-oxide fuel for years, but the plant at SRS would be a first of its kind in the United States.

In April, a load of French mixed-oxide fuel was shipped through Charleston's port to Duke Power's Catawba Nuclear Station on Lake Wylie. The aim is to test and demonstrate the safe use of the fuel.

The United States plans to convert 34 metric tons of plutonium under an agreement it signed with Russia in September 2000 to reduce stockpiles of surplus plutonium.

The agreement on liability issues requires a Russian presidential decree, followed by the United States and Russia signing the pact, Graham said. The Russian Duma would then have to ratify the agreement, he said.

Savannah River Site, a 310-square-mile fortress, has been bleeding jobs since it stood down the production of materials for nuclear bombs. The work force has fallen from a peak of 35,000 in the 1950s to about 12,000 today.

The mixed-oxide plant is expected to create 500 jobs for 20 years, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration said last year.

Third District U.S. Rep. Gresham Barrett, a Republican who represents the area around SRS, said the liability issue was worked out at the "highest level," including talks between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin.