The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have both cleared regulatory hurdles for the planned restart of the Crane Clean Energy Center in Pennsylvania, moving the roughly 835 megawatt reactor closer to returning power to the grid. FERC approved a waiver in June 2026 that lets Constellation Energy transfer 760 megawatts of capacity interconnection rights from its Eddystone plant to the Crane unit, removing a transmission bottleneck that had threatened the project timeline. The NRC separately issued a draft environmental assessment finding no significant environmental impacts from the restart, another required step before the unit can return to service.
Constellation is investing roughly 1.6 billion dollars to restore the plant's operating systems and expects the reactor to be ready for service in 2027. The company also plans to pursue a license extension that would keep the unit running through at least 2054. Constellation has signed a 20 year agreement to sell the plant's full output, including capacity and clean energy attributes, to Microsoft to help power data centers across the PJM grid region covering the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest.
The restart adds to a broader wave of nuclear investment tied to rising electricity demand from data centers and artificial intelligence workloads. Utilities and grid operators across the PJM footprint have cited nuclear capacity additions and restarts as a key tool for meeting load growth without straining grid reliability.
Source: ANS Nuclear Newswire - https://www.ans.org/news/2026-06-05/article-8097/ferc-approves-constellation-waiver-request-on-crane-restart/