Energy Department Backs Nuclear Restarts and Uprates in Iowa, Michigan, and Pennsylvania
The Department of Energy has conditionally approved billions in financing to restart three shuttered commercial reactors and add capacity at existing plants, advancing the Trump administration’s nuclear-expansion goals.
Tommy Flynn
Energy Secretary Chris Wright announced conditional loan commitments that will fund uprates and modernization at Constellation Energy plants in Illinois, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, adding nearly 1.1 gigawatts—enough to power more than 930,000 homes—and supporting more than 10,000 project jobs. A separate $4.2 billion commitment to Vistra covers uprates in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
The department is also supporting the restart of three previously shuttered reactors: Palisades in Michigan (800 MW, backed by a $1.5 billion loan to Holtec), Crane Clean Energy Center (formerly Three Mile Island Unit 1) in Pennsylvania (835 MW, $1 billion loan to Constellation), and Duane Arnold in Iowa (615 MW, $1.9 billion financing to NextEra). Combined, the restarts would restore roughly 2.25 GW.
These would be the first commercial U.S. reactors to resume generation after entering decommissioning. Palisades closed in 2022; Crane’s unit was shut in 2019; Duane Arnold ceased operations in 2020. NextEra and Google have a long-term agreement for the Iowa restart; Constellation has a 20-year power-purchase agreement with Microsoft for the Pennsylvania unit.
Wright called the actions “yet another example of the commonsense energy-addition policies the Trump Administration is embracing” and part of the UPRISE program aimed at unlocking capacity from the existing fleet. The administration has conditionally approved nearly $30 billion for the nuclear sector overall.
The restarts and uprates are intended to supply reliable baseload power for data centers and manufacturing without waiting for new greenfield reactors. State officials in Michigan and Iowa had previously supported the restarts to retain jobs and generation.
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