The Energy Department has authorized a conditional loan of up to $5 billion for Constellation Energy to add nearly 1.1 gigawatts of electricity generation from nuclear power plants in Illinois, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, officials announced on Oct. 27.
Agreements to provide electricity to data centers in the region require the company to expand its power generation in the three states.
“This is how America wins the race for energy abundance—by pairing private-sector demand and investment with smart federal financing to unlock more power from the nuclear plants we already have,” said Joe Dominguez, Constellation chairman, president, and CEO, in a statement.
The Maryland-based company, the largest nuclear power plant operator in the United States, operates 12 nuclear power facilities.
The loan would be available to support expansion at six plants in Illinois, which include Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle, and Quad Cities; the Calvert Cliffs plant in Maryland; and the Limerick plant in Pennsylvania, according to Constellation.
The conditional loan commitment could also lower financing costs for the company and help Constellation increase the amount of electricity generated across its nuclear power facilities, without the need to build new generation facilities or transmission corridors, the company said.
Recent contracts with Google and Amazon have required the company to add about 1,080 megawatts of nuclear capacity, which will cost more than $7 billion to produce, according to Constellation Energy.
Another agreement signed last year with Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, required Constellation to expand its Clinton Clean Energy Center in Illinois by 30 megawatts, the company stated.
Constellation’s expansion is part of a “nuclear renaissance” in America, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said during a visit to Constellation’s Byron Clean Energy Center in Byron, Illinois, on Oct. 27.
President Donald Trump’s goal to add energy resources to America’s grid has revived the need for more nuclear power, Wright told CNBC.
“We’re restarting three power plants, uprating power plants all across the country, and soon you’ll be hearing announcements about new reactors being constructed,” Wright said.
Wright didn’t provide specific details about the new reactors. The Energy Department has conditionally committed to lend $17.5 billion under its American Nuclear Supply Chain Loans initiative to help finance equipment for five eligible projects with a goal of accelerating 10 new reactor projects by up to three years, the department said.
An aerial view shows storm clouds moving over Constellation's Clinton Clean Energy Center’s single nuclear reactor power plant in Clinton, Ill., on July 25, 2025. Meta recently signed a 20-year power purchase agreement with Constellation for the output from the plant. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
The Energy Department also committed to loan $4.2 billion to Vistra Corp. on Oct. 5 to fund the expansion of three of its existing nuclear power plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
Vistra plans to preserve about 4 gigawatts of existing baseload power and add 433 megawatts of new generation to help meet an agreement with Meta for its massive Prometheus data center complex.
In February, the department closed a loan package of $26.5 billion to support subsidiaries of Southern Co.
Three power plants are also being restarted under the Trump administration—the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan, the Crane Clean Energy Center in Pennsylvania, and the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa.
Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the names of the Byron Clean Energy Center and Quad Cities plant. The Epoch Times regrets the errors.
