The Trump administration said Tuesday it would provide $17.5 billion in low-cost loans to utilities and power companies to help speed the construction of up to 10 new large nuclear reactors to meet the surging demand for electricity from data centers.
The move is the most aggressive effort yet by the Energy Department’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing to back nuclear power. It aims to help develop the supply chain for Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactors and drive a nuclear “renaissance” to increase output from the energy source that has seen only two new major reactors built in three decades.
“We are confident that these projects will be economic for utility shareholders, ratepayers and hyperscalers,” Greg Beard, director of EDF, told reporters. “It will accelerate commercial operations dates for these larger actors by up to three years, it will drive procurement savings, and it will expand manufacturing capacity in the United States.”
Each loan would support two reactors at five separate project sites, DOE said. Those projects would be owned by both the utility or energy company sponsoring it and Westinghouse, which would commit $1 billion upfront combined in project equity to have access to the department’s loan.
