  Initial results are presented from CHOOZ, a long-baseline reactor-neutrino
vacuum-oscillation experiment. Electron antineutrinos were detected by a liquid
scintillation calorimeter located at a distance of about 1 km. The detector was
constructed in a tunnel protected from cosmic rays by a 300 MWE rock
overburden. This massive shielding strongly reduced potentially troublesome
backgrounds due to cosmic-ray muons, leading to a background rate of about one
event per day, more than an order of magnitude smaller than the observed
neutrino signal. From the statistical agreement between detected and expected
neutrino event rates, we find (at 90% confidence level) no evidence for
neutrino oscillations in the electron antineutrino disappearance mode for the
parameter region given approximately by deltam**2 > 0.9 10**(-3) eV**2 for
maximum mixing and (sin(2 theta)**2) > 0.18 for large deltam**2.
