Energy Department to Loan $17.5 Billion for 10 New Nuclear Reactors

The Energy Department announced Tuesday that it will provide $17.5 billion in loans to speed the deployment of 10 big nuclear reactors across the U.S.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the loans will lower construction costs and accelerate the deployment of the reactors by up to three years.

The loans will support the construction of five projects that each host two big nuclear reactors. The money will help finance complex, big-ticket components that typically take a long time to manufacture and deliver.

The five projects will use Westinghouse's AP1000 reactor design that can generate 1.1 gigawatts of electricity, roughly enough to power more than 800,000 homes.

Westinghouse will partner with up to five eligible utilities or energy companies on the projects. It already has signed letters of intent with seven potential partners, each with identified project sites.

Wright declined to disclose the locations of the candidate sites in a call with reporters. He said final decisions have not yet been made on which sites will receive the funding.

"They're geographically spread across the country," the secretary said.

Shares of Westinghouse's parent company, Cameco Corp. , were up more than 1% after the DOE announcement.

The loans will not go directly to Westinghouse, said Greg Beard, who heads DOE's loan office. Instead, the financing will go to five special purpose vehicles, Beard said. Westinghouse and its partners have to contribute nearly $1 billion in equity to each SPV to unlock the loan money, he said.

The Trump administration anticipates that the big tech companies will sign long-term power purchase agreements with the projects to support the construction of the reactors, Beard said.

The tech sector has played an instrumental role in stimulating renewed demand for nuclear power, as they search for reliable, emissions-free power sources to fuel the data centers they are building for artificial intelligence.

Microsoft and Alphabet 's Google have signed agreements to support the restart of Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Duane Arnold in Iowa, respectively. But the tech sector has not inked a deal yet that supports the construction of a new big plant.