Washington: The Donald Trump administration on Tuesday unveiled a USD 17.5 billion financing programme aimed at rebuilding the US nuclear supply chain and accelerating construction of 10 new large-scale nuclear reactors, marking one of the most ambitious efforts in decades to revive America’s commercial nuclear industry.
The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced a conditional loan commitment to support the procurement of long-lead components needed for 10 new reactors based on Westinghouse’s AP1000 design.
“Just over one year ago, President Trump directed the Energy Department and its agency partners to unleash the next American nuclear renaissance,” US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said.
“To accomplish that mission, these conditional loans will play an important role in reviving the supply chain needed for America to once again build large-scale commercial reactors. They will also help accelerate the timeline of building those large-scale reactors by up to three years, lowering construction costs and ensuring the United States is able to deliver on President Trump’s bold and ambitious energy addition agenda,” he said.
The DOE said the financing would support up to five projects, with each project involving two reactors. Together, the 10 reactors would generate more than 11 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power nearly 10 million American homes.
Wright said the administration was pursuing a broad strategy to expand nuclear power.
“We are doing everything we can at the Department of Energy for policies to add dispatchable, reliable, secure energy to the United States to lower electricity price and power reindustrialisation of our country,” he told reporters.
The loans are not intended to fund reactor construction directly. Instead, they will finance the purchase of critical long-lead items such as reactor pressure vessels, steam generators and structural modules that often take years to manufacture.
Greg Beard, who heads the Energy Dominance Financing office, said the programme was designed to reduce costs through standardisation and repeat construction.
“Why 10 reactors? The way to drive down cost in nuclear is to standardise and repeat build the same design,” Beard said.
He said EDF was “obligating USD 17.5 billion dollars in financing for the American nuclear supply chain loans” to help achieve the administration’s goal of having 10 large reactors under construction by 2030.
According to Beard, more than 100 companies across over 40 states are expected to benefit from the supply-chain build-out.
The programme requires substantial private-sector participation. Westinghouse and each utility or energy-company partner must commit about USD 500 million each in equity before DOE financing becomes available, creating roughly USD 1 billion in private investment per project.
Officials said seven utilities and energy companies have already signed letters of intent, though only five projects will initially be selected.
“The world-changing growth of AI is driving enormous demand for electricity by companies who are willing to pay more for that power,” Beard said, pointing to rising demand from hyperscale data centres and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Wright said long-term power purchase agreements from technology companies could help support project economics without increasing consumer electricity rates.
“We think this will be the start,” he said. “Do we think there’ll be dozens of these built going forward? I’d be very surprised if there were not.”
The announcement comes as the Trump administration pushes a broader strategy to expand domestic energy production and strengthen US manufacturing. Nuclear energy currently provides about one-fifth of US electricity and remains the country’s largest source of carbon-free power generation.
Westinghouse’s AP1000 reactors are already operating at the Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia, where Units 3 and 4 entered service after years of delays and cost overruns. Administration officials said lessons from those projects, along with a standardised design and rebuilt supply chain, should help reduce costs and improve construction timelines for future reactors.
(IANS)
