How Much More Financial Aid Will Nuclear Industry Get During Trump 2.0?

---

Written by John Egan for IIR News Intelligence (Sugar Land, Texas)

---

Summary

The U.S. nuclear power industry has received at least US$34 billion in loan commitments so far during the second Trump administration. IIR is tracking about US$247 billion in proposed nuclear power projects scheduled to begin construction in 2027 and beyond. The U.S. Department of Energy is said to have as much as an additional $250 billion to lend to energy projects favored by the president. Will U.S. nuclear projects receive additional financial aid from the federal government? If so, which ones?

---

Proposed Nuclear Power Projects, DOE Loan Commitments

Tuesday's announcement that the U. S. Department of Energy (DOE) will issue a conditional loan of up to US$5 billion to Constellation Energy Corporation to expand its nuclear generating capacity increased the Trump administration's financial support for nuclear power industry to at least US$34 billion. For more on the Constellation loan, see October 28. 2026, IIR Breaking Energy News article - Constellation Secures $5 Billion Conditional DOE Loan for Nuclear Expansion.

Industrial Info Resources is tracking approximately 218 U.S. nuclear power capital and maintenance projects valued at about US$249 billion that are scheduled to begin construction in 2027 and beyond. That list includes plans to build dozens of small modular reactors (SMRs); construct a number of traditional large new plants, some using the Westinghouse AP1000 nuclear design; reopen closed plants; finish construction of partially built plants; restart closed plants; and perform a variety of in-plant capital projects such as power uprates, plant modernizations and steam turbine replacements. That list also includes several planned decommissioning and demolition of closed nuclear plants. Readers can access that list of proposed projects here.

The DOE has a division, the Office of Energy Dominance Funding (DOE EDF), that makes loan commitments to energy projects favored by the president and his administration. So far, this office has made over US$34 billion in loan commitments to the domestic nuclear power industry. An official from the DOE EDF told an energy conference this summer that it had about US$250 billion in remaining lending authority, and it was seeking more authority from Congress. For more on that, see August 25, 2026, article - DOE Seeking Loan Applicants for U.S. Energy Projects Favored by Trump.

Expanding and Upgrading Existing Plants

The loan commitment to Constellation will be for expanding nuclear generating capacity at eight existing facilities across Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

On October 5, the DOE EDF made a conditional loan commitment of up to US$4.2 billion to a unit of Vistra Corporation to support expanding and modernizing operations at three operating nuclear power plants in the PJM Interconnection: Perry and Davis-Besse in Ohio and Beaver Valley in Pennsylvania. For more on that, see October 7, 2026, article - U.S. Plans to Loan $4.2 Billion for Vistra's PJM Nuclear Plants.

The DOE EDF said the loan commitment would "preserve nearly 4,000 MW of reliable baseload power -- enough to power more than 3 million homes -- and add 433 megawatts of new nuclear capacity" by uprating the plants.

PJM is the wholesale grid manager overseeing power delivery to an estimated 67 million people in 13 states and the District of Columbia. Its reserve margins have dwindled in recent months in the face of the explosive growth of planned data centers in its geographic footprint.

The loan commitment to Vistra also includes an option to finance potential future uprates at its Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in Texas, DOE said October 5.

IIR was unable to reach a DOE official to learn whether, and how many, nuclear asset owners have requested loan guarantees from the agency's EDF.

IIR is tracking over a dozen proposed in-plant capital and maintenance projects at U.S. nuclear power plants, including:

• Several in-plant capital projects at the Surry and North Anna plants, operated by a unit of Dominion Energy
• Power uprates at the Columbia station, operated by Energy Northwest
• Power uprates at the McGuire, Brunswick and Catawba stations, operated by Duke Energy
• Power uprates at the Comanche Peak station, operated by a unit of Luminant, a unit of Vistra, and
• Power uprates at the Hatch and Vogtle nuclear stations, operated by Georgia Power Company.

Funding in-plant capital and maintenance projects at operating nuclear plants is a quicker way to bring new nuclear capacity online compared to building new units or taking closed units out of mothballs. IIR believes one or more of these projects will be funded by the DOE EDF.

DOE Loan Seeks to Rebuild Nuclear Supply Chain

In June 2026, the DOE EDF finalized a US$17.5 billion conditional loan commitment to rebuild the domestic nuclear supply chain in order to accelerate the deployment of 10 new AP1000 nuclear reactors manufactured by the Westinghouse Electric Company. For more on that, see June 24, 2026, article -- U.S. Plans to Loan $17.5 Billion to Boost Nuclear Reactor Construction.

The first two AP1000 reactors to be deployed were installed at the Alvin W. Vogtle Nuclear Power Station in Georgia, which was completed in 2024 years late and billions of dollars over budget.

The DOE EDF award announcement said the AP1000 reactors are planned to be built at five locations, which have not yet been disclosed. However, the names of several utilities have been mentioned as potential hosts.

William J. Smith, a spokesperson for one of those utilities, New Jersey-based Public Service Enterprise Group Incorporated (PSEG), said this in an emailed statement to IIR: "We are proud of the people and performance of PSEG's existing nuclear generating sites, and we are excited about the future opportunities available associated with our early site permit in Salem County. Nuclear provides reliable power that is a carbon-free, 24/7, baseload power source. As previously stated publicly, PSEG is interested in enabling new nuclear development for the State at the PSEG nuclear generating site."

Stephen Tait, nuclear communications manager for another utility, DTE Energy Company, told IIR, "At this time, DTE has no immediate plans to build a new nuclear power plant."

Mark Sullivan, communications director for Entergy Corporation, said this in an emailed statement to IIR: "As a company, we continue evaluating all forms of new nuclear generation, large and small. We've not made any firm decisions on our next steps. Ultimately, we will ensure any decision we make is in the best interest of our customers and other stakeholders."

Energy Agency Also Funds Efforts to Reopen Closed Plants

In separate decisions, the DOE EDF has guaranteed loans totaling up to US$4.4 billion to restart three closed nuclear power plants, according to an Associated Press article. The shuttered plants include the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station in Michigan, owned by Holtec International; the Crane Clean Energy Center in Pennsylvania, formerly known as Three Mile Island, owned by Constellation; and the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa, owned by NextEra Energy Incorporated. For more on the loan to the Arnild Center, see September 8. 2026, IIR Energy Breaking Energy News article - DOE Closes $1.9 Billion Loan for 606 MW Duane Arnold Nuclear Restart.

The three plants have combined generating capacity of about 2,250 MW. The three plants closed before their licenses expired, largely because the electricity they produced was considered too expensive, AP reported.

There are about 20 other nuclear plants in the U.S. that have closed for one reason or another. Some have been mothballed while others are in varying stages of decontamination and demolition. A list of those non-operating nuclear plants can be viewed here. It would be easier, but by no means easy, to reopen a plant that has been recently mothballed compared to one undergoing decommissioning and demolition.

By the Numbers

• 249: Dollar value, in US billions, of proposed U.S. nuclear power projects scheduled to kick off construction in 2027 and beyond.
• 250: The amount of remaining lending authority, in US billions, that the DOE Office of Energy Dominance Funding had as of August 2026 to support energy projects favored by the Trump administration.
• 34: The publicly released value of loan guarantees, in U.S. billions, made so far in the second Trump administration to nuclear power operators.

Next-Generation Projects Also Receive DOE Funding

This year, two next-generation nuclear power projects in Wyoming and Tennessee were awarded construction licenses by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). For more on that, see October 15, 2026, article - U.S. Nuclear Body Gives Second SMR Permit in Six Months.

Both of those planned nuclear projects received DOE funding.

The DOE has awarded about US$2 billion to the Natrium sodium-cooled project now under construction in Kemmerer, Wyoming. This project is being developed by TerraPower Incorporated.

Last December, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was awarded US$400 million to accelerate the deployment of SMRs. A DOE statement from December 2 said the grant to TVA will support deployment of a GE Vernova Hitachi BWRX-300 at the Clinch River Nuclear site in Tennessee. For more on that award, and a separate award made the same day to Holtec International, see December 4, 2025, article - DOE Awards $800 Million for U.S. SMR Development. The award to Holtec is intended to support deployment of two SMR-300 reactors at the Palisades Nuclear Generating Station site in Covert, Michigan.

Roughly three dozen other next-generation nuclear projects are under development. Many of these are for SMRs.

Why Nuclear? Why Now?

Despite its strong operating safety record, the U.S. nuclear power industry has a history of cost overruns and missed milestones. But the U.S. nuclear industry has been warmly embraced by the second Trump administration. The president, and DOE leaders, have justified its financial support for nuclear because electricity generated by those plants is dispatchable, unlike intermittent resources like wind and solar, and thus can be used to support the 24/7/365 power needs of actual and planned data centers, which continue to grow very rapidly, as well as advanced manufacturing and other large energy loads. For more on the unprecedented growth of data centers, see October 20, 2026, article - Data Center Construction Starts Still Soaring Despite Some Bumps in the Road.

Hefty financial commitments to proposed, existing and closed nuclear power plants, and to rebuild a domestic nuclear supply chain, raise several questions. Multiple efforts to reach DOE were unsuccessful.

Key Takeaways

---

• The second Trump administration has made at least $34 billion in loan commitments to the domestic nuclear power industry.
• The DOE office responsible for disbursing loan guarantees to energy projects favored by the Trump administration had about US$250 billion in remaining lending authority as of August, and it planned to seek more authority from Congress.
• IIR is tracking about US$249 billion of proposed nuclear power projects that are scheduled to begin construction in January 2027 or thereafter.