Constellation Gets $1 Billion Loan to Open Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant
(Bloomberg) -- Constellation Energy Corp.’s plan to restart its shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant is getting $1 billion in backing from the US government as the Trump administration pushes to add more atomic power on the electric grid.
The Energy Department said on Tuesday that it was finalizing a $1 billion loan to help revive the Pennsylvania reactor, which Constellation has said it expects to reopen as early as mid-2027 at a cost of $1.6 billion.
For Constellation, the department’s Loan Programs Office is making the rare decision to expedite the funding, which is typically first offered on a conditional basis. In this case, the financial backing is being guaranteed by Constellation, the biggest US operator of reactors, agency officials told reporters.
Constellation shares surged as much as 4.6% after the close of regular trading in New York.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright told reporters that financing for the project is needed to help address surging electricity prices and add more around-the-clock power to the grid.
While one of Three Mile Island site’s two units was permanently closed almost a half-century ago after the worst US nuclear accident, Constellation plans to reopen the other, which shut in 2019 because it couldn’t compete economically. The reactor is being renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center as part of the restart. Microsoft Corp. agreed last year to purchase electricity produced by the reactor as it seeks carbon-free electricity for data centers to power the AI boom.
Backing from the Energy Department comes as President Donald Trump throws his weight behind accelerating construction of nuclear power plants. He has signed an executive order that aims to get 10 large, conventional reactors under construction by 2030, and has called for the use of government funds to support the restart of shuttered nuclear plants.
The Energy Department’s loan program, which received an influx of $250 billion of lending authority from Trump’s signature tax and spending legislation that became law over the summer, is primed to be a potent tool in the administration’s quest to revive nuclear.
Greg Beard, a senior adviser to the Loan Programs Office, told reporters on Tuesday that “a large portion of that” will be used to help large-scale nuclear reactors, including additional restarts of shuttered plants.
The financing for Constellation is the third deal that the Trump administration has closed under the loan program. For Trump, it marks a reversal from his first administration when he argued that the government had no business picking winners and losers in the energy industry.
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