The Department of Energy has issued Constellation a conditional commitment for a loan of up to $5 billion to fund power uprates at eight nuclear plants, the agency announced on October 27. The financing comes from DOE's Office of Energy Dominance Financing, formerly the Loan Programs Office.
The covered plants are Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle and Quad Cities in Illinois, Calvert Cliffs in Maryland and Limerick in Pennsylvania. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, speaking at Byron, said the projects would add 1.1 gigawatts of capacity from 15 reactors. DOE said the added output would supply enough power for more than 930,000 homes and support more than 10,000 project-related jobs. The commitment also includes an option for DOE to finance future uprates at other Constellation facilities.
The loan remains conditional. DOE said Constellation must satisfy technical, legal, environmental and financial requirements before the financing is finalized. Utility Dive reported that Wright described 95 percent of DOE's 5-gigawatt goal for nuclear uprates and restarts as already identified.
Constellation Chair, President and CEO Joe Dominguez said the commitment can help the company "move faster and go further," according to the report. The uprates connect to several customer agreements, including a 20-year, 890-megawatt power purchase agreement with Google signed October 6, an Amazon agreement tied to Calvert Cliffs, a Meta agreement for Clinton power and a Walmart agreement for Dresden power.
The announcement follows DOE's October 6 commitment of up to $4.2 billion to Vistra for uprates at three plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Uprates raise output from existing reactors at a fraction of the cost and time of new builds or restarts.
Source: ANS Nuclear Newswire -- https://www.ans.org/news/2026-10-27/article-8523/constellation-to-get-up-to-5b-doe-loan-for-planned-uprates/