Trump administration announces $5 billion to upgrade nuclear plants in three states

The Trump administration is offering up to $5 billion in federal financing to upgrade and modernize nuclear power plants in three states, with the aim of adding more power to the electricity grid using the existing nuclear reactor fleet in the United States.The Energy Department announced the conditional loan commitment on Tuesday, granting the funds to Constellation Energy to upgrade its nuclear reactors in Illinois, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.Constellation Energy will specifically invest in eight nuclear power plants across the three states, including Calvert Cliffs in Maryland. These upgrading projects are expected to add nearly 1.1 gigawatts of electricity to the grid in the PJM Interconnection and Midcontinent Independent System Operator regions. This is roughly equivalent to the amount of electricity needed to power over 930,000 homes, according to the Energy Department.The agency said the projects will support more than 10,000 jobs and help lower electricity costs for consumers.The funds are set to be delivered through the Energy Department’s Energy Dominance Financing Office.Bolstering the nuclear energy industry has been a top priority for President Donald Trump, who laid out a goal last year to quadruple U.S. nuclear capacity by 2050.At the time, Trump also called for the Energy Department to add 5 gigawatts worth of new nuclear energy through upgrades from existing reactors, as new nuclear power plants can take 10 years or more to build. As of October, 95% of that total has been identified, according to the agency.“Uprates that maximize power generation from our existing nuclear facilities are yet another example of the commonsense energy addition policies the Trump Administration is embracing—ensuring more affordable, reliable, and secure energy for American families and businesses,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement.A similar $4.2 billion loan for reactor upgrades in Ohio and Pennsylvania was announced earlier this month.Nuclear energy has become an attractive option for the administration to secure enough baseload power to meet rising demand brought about by artificial intelligence and data centers.A LOOK BACK ON TRUMP’S EFFORTS TO BOOST NUCLEAR ENERGY ONE YEAR LATERThe carbon-free technology has a capacity factor of around 92.3%, higher than any other energy source. That essentially means nuclear reactors can produce reliable and secure power more than 92% of the time.In addition to financing reactor upgrades, the administration has finalized loans to reopen decommissioned nuclear sites, facilitated the swift development of advanced small modular reactors, ordered a regulatory overhaul to accelerate construction approvals, and announced more than $17 billion in loans to build 10 new large nuclear reactors.