US offers Constellation conditional loan of up to $5 billion for nuclear uprates
The Energy Department's commitment would fund work at eight plants in three states that it says will add nearly 1.1 gigawatts, but conditions must be met first.
AI illustrationThe U.S. Department of Energy has made a conditional commitment to lend up to $5 billion to Constellation Energy for nuclear uprates and modernization across its reactor fleet in Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania. The department's Office of Energy Dominance Financing announced the commitment.
The money has not yet been lent. The department said the commitment shows its intent to provide a loan, but Constellation must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental and financial conditions before the department enters into definitive financing documents and funds it.
The planned work covers Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle and Quad Cities in Illinois, Calvert Cliffs in Maryland and Limerick in Pennsylvania. The commitment also includes an option to finance future uprate projects at additional Constellation facilities.
According to the department, the modernization will add nearly 1.1 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 930,000 homes, across the PJM and MISO regions. It said the investments will support more than 10,000 project-related jobs and will lower costs and strengthen grid reliability.
The loan is tied to an executive order from President Trump that calls for the department to facilitate 5 GW of power uprates from existing nuclear reactors. In March 2026 the department launched a programme called UPRISE to expand the country's nuclear capacity by getting more power out of existing reactors. The department said 95% of the 5-GW uprate and restart goal has been identified so far.
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright said uprates at existing nuclear facilities are an example of the administration's energy addition policies and support more affordable, reliable and secure energy. Gregory A. Beard, director of the financing office, said the investments will add more reliable baseload power to the grid and help lower electricity costs.