The US Department of Energy just made the biggest bet on nuclear power the country has seen in decades. The Trump administration announced $17.5 billion in conditional low-interest loans to fund the construction of up to 10 nuclear reactors, a move designed to jumpstart an industry that has spent years stuck in bureaucratic quicksand and cost overruns.
The loans, announced on June 23, will flow through the DOE’s Energy Department Finance program to cover long-lead-time components for Westinghouse AP1000 reactors. Think pressure vessels, steam generators, and coolant pumps, the kind of massive, custom-built hardware that takes years to manufacture and has historically been a bottleneck for getting new plants online.
What the plan actually looks like
The initiative targets five separate projects that would collectively house 10 AP1000 reactors. The explicit goal is to shorten construction timelines by up to three years. At least seven utilities and energy companies have already submitted letters of intent to participate. The program focuses specifically on bolstering domestic manufacturing capacity for large commercial reactors, a capability the US has let atrophy over the past several decades.
