WASHINGTON — The US Nuclear Regulatory Committee on Thursday gave the green light to the design of a new Westinghouse Electric Co. reactor, paving the way for the first construction of nuclear reactors in the United States since the 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear accident over 30 years ago.

The AP 1000 reactor is a 1,100 megawatt electric pressurized water reactor, equipped with passive safety measures designed to cool the reactor in the event of an accident without the need for human intervention, according to the panel.

The move to approve the design submitted by Westinghouse, a subsidiary of Japan’s Toshiba Corp., could affect the trend of reviewing nuclear power generation around the world in the wake of the nuclear crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant in northeastern Japan.

The construction and operations of new reactors are expected to be approved in Georgia early next year.

The United States has 104 nuclear reactors but has frozen construction of new facilities since the 1979 nuclear accident.