Energy Department offers Constellation up to $5B to get more power out of nuclear plants
The U.S. Energy Department on Oct. 27 conditionally committed to lend Constellation Energy as much as $5 billion for uprates that would add nearly 1.1 GW at eight of its nuclear plants across Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Six of the plants are in Illinois: Quad Cities, LaSalle, Dresden, Clinton, Byron and Braidwood. The other two are Calvert Cliffs in Maryland and Pennsylvania's Limerick. DOE's Office of Energy Dominance Financing puts the job count above 10,000 across the projects. The offer also carries an option to finance uprates at other Constellation plants later.
No money has moved yet. DOE said Constellation first has to clear a set of conditions (technical, legal, environmental and financial) before the agency signs final papers and releases funds. The company said the commitment is not a decision to go ahead with any single uprate, and when ENR asked which plants would move first, Constellation said it had nothing to add beyond its release.
Private customers already back most of the capacity. Constellation says 20-year power contracts with Google and Amazon justify over $7 billion of its own spending to add about 1,080 MW. ENR reported that the Google deal, announced Oct. 6, covers more than $4.3 billion for 890 MW at 11 reactor units, including new work on turbines, steam generators and digital controls, with the first added capacity due in 2028. The Amazon deal backs more than $3 billion at Calvert Cliffs, including a 190-MW uprate. A Meta agreement covers 30 MW more at Clinton.
ENR noted that nobody has named the contractors or published a detailed scope for Calvert Cliffs. For scale: a 27-day refueling outage at the plant this year brought in more than 1,500 skilled workers and close to $90 million of equipment upgrades. DOE started its UPRISE program in March to reach a 5-GW uprate goal set by executive order.
Why it matters: Uprates are outage work at running plants: turbine-generator, steam generator and control upgrades in refueling windows. Electrical, mechanical and I&C firms with nuclear quality programs near these eight sites should get on Constellation's supplier lists now; first Google-backed capacity is due in 2028.
Sources
- US Energy Dept. Offers Constellation $5B to Accelerate Nuclear Plant UpratesENR, Oct 27
- Energy Department Announces $5 Billion Loan to Boost Nuclear Power and Help Lower Costs in Illinois, Maryland, and PennsylvaniaU.S. Department of Energy, Oct 27
- Constellation Secures Conditional DOE Loan Commitment of up to $5 Billion to Expand Nuclear OutputConstellation, Oct 27