Energy Department offers Constellation up to $5 billion to boost output at six Illinois nuclear plants

The U.S. Department of Energy has offered Constellation Energy a conditional loan of up to $5 billion to increase the power output of its nuclear plants in Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania.^{1, 2} Six of the eight plants named are in Illinois: Braidwood, Byron, Clinton, Dresden, LaSalle and Quad Cities.^{1, 2}

The department announced the commitment Tuesday, Oct. 27, through its Office of Energy Dominance Financing.^{1, 2} Energy Secretary Chris Wright was at the Byron Nuclear Plant in Ogle County for the announcement, Shaw Local reported.²

What the money would pay for

The loan would finance uprates, which raise the amount of electricity existing reactors produce, along with other modernization work.^{1, 2} The department said the projects would add nearly 1.1 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 930,000 homes, and would support more than 10,000 project-related jobs.¹

Constellation’s Dan Eggers, a senior executive vice president, said at the news conference that the projects would add “nearly 1,100 megawatts of new nuclear capacity to the grid.”² “This will help to move projects forward, and not at any cost to customer bills,” he said.²

The company recently signed 20-year agreements with Google and Amazon, deals it said led it to invest “more than $7 billion” to add 1,080 megawatts of nuclear capacity, according to Shaw Local.²

Not final yet

The commitment signals the department’s intent to lend, but Constellation must meet “certain technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions” before the government signs financing documents and pays out the money, the department said.^{1, 2} Constellation said the commitment is not a final decision to go ahead with an uprate at any one plant, Shaw Local reported.² The commitment also includes an option to finance future uprates at other Constellation plants, according to the department.¹

The federal push

The department tied the loan to President Donald Trump’s executive order “Reinvigorating the Nuclear Industrial Base,” which calls for 5 gigawatts of uprates at existing reactors.^{1, 2} In March 2026 it launched an effort called the Utility Power Reactor Incremental Scaling Effort, or UPRISE, to speed that work.¹

“We said we’re going to launch a nuclear renaissance, and I can assure you we’re all in on doing that,” Wright said in Byron.² U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood, R-Peoria, also spoke at the event.² “What that means is having reliable power available around the clock while keeping energy affordable for consumers and businesses,” LaHood said.²

The plants sell power into two regional grids, PJM Interconnection and the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, both of which the department said would benefit.¹ LaHood said electricity demand is rising, “driven by advanced manufacturing and new technologies.”²