Trump administration announces $17.5 billion in loans for 10 new large nuclear reactors

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: ABC News/AP

June 23, 2026, 12:34 PM


WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration is providing $17.5 billion to speed the development of 10 new large nuclear reactors to meet the skyrocketing power demand from massive data centers.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright cited “tremendous interest” among developers of data centers that would buy the power, as well as utilities and energy companies. The nuclear plants could begin construction by 2030 and become operational in the mid-2030s, Wright and other officials said Tuesday.

“This is the start,” Wright said on a call with reporters. “We’re going to move with the players that are ready to stand up and move quickly. Once that supply chain is up and running, do we think there will be dozens of these built going forward? I’d be very surprised if there were not.”

Most U.S. nuclear power plants were built between 1970 and 1990. Only two new large reactors have been built from scratch in the United States in recent decades. Those two reactors, at Georgia Power Co.’s Plant Vogtle, were completed years late and billions of dollars over budget. The 10 new reactors will use the same design, Westinghouse’s AP1000.

Read more: https://abcnews.com/Business/wireStory/trump-administration-announces-175-billion-loans-10-new-134137821

[GenThePerservering]

1. Nuclear reactors themselves don't bother me

it's them being built during this hapless administration.

[reACTIONary]

9. True that! Hopefully...

.... they don't "mastermind" the actual construction.

[highplainsdem]

13. They've slashed safety regulations for plant construction/operation. There were posts here about that some time back.

[highplainsdem]

14. Just found the thread I posted then, which links to another thread about it:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220976814

[reACTIONary]

15. Thanks!

[reACTIONary]

17. It seems that these changes apply....

....to the Reactor Pilot Program, to expedite the demonstration of advanced nuclear designs, not to full scale production facilities. Not that that is a good thing, but it probably does not apply to the 10 new large nuclear reactors. I hope.

[pecosbob]

2. Most likely as dedicated power for data centers.

[pnwmom]

3. And what are their plans for the nuclear waste? nt

[republianmushroom]

7. They will let Dems take care of that small problem.

[WSHazel]

4. There is no rational reason to build new nuclear plants

Future increases in demand for electricity are dependent on massive increases in data center demand, which is economically impossible. Either the LLMs are going to get a lot more efficient, reducing demand for data centers, or the LLMs fail altogether, which reduces data center demand. Either way, straight lining capacity need off projected growth while holding technology steady, is an asinine assumption.

If the markets don’t need all these data centers, they won’t need huge, fixed production power plants that use old technology like nuclear power.

If there is a gap in power needs vs. capacity and there must be more power generation, using alternative to fill the gap is the logical path since it is so much cheaper than nuclear and it doesn’t compute. It also has much shorter lead times than nuclear.

Finally, if it is determined that nuclear must be part of the equation, why wouldn’t the market wait for miniaturization of nuclear which seems likely in the next 5 years.

In other words, there is no reason to start building expensive nuclear power plants that take a decade to build, may be unnecessary, and will certainly be obsolete by the time they are operational.

[msongs]

5. my $2800 solar rooftop been working silently for 18 yrrs and NO cost overrun. paid off 10 yrs ago

[republianmushroom]

6. But wind turbines cause cancer.

So we're told.

[in2herbs]

8. If Congress has the purse and must approve what the expenditure is for, how does F45 have the

authority to do this?

[reACTIONary]

10. These loans are financed....

.....through the DOE’s Title 17 Energy Financing Program. The Title 17 program operates using existing borrowing authority, credit subsidy appropriations, and permanent loan guarantee authority established by Congress across multiple past statutes rather than a single specific congressional bill.

[modrepub]

11. Not Enough

The last large-scale nuclear power plant privately built cost $25B and took over a decade to build; so in today $, that price tag is on the low side.

The only way this is feasible is if the money is paid back over 30+ years. Nuclear power on a cost per megawatt basis is WAY more expensive than other forms of electricity production. It costs more to build a nuclear power plant and to operate it compared to other forms of electricity production.

So like just about everything this administration does and Republicans support, it's gonna cost taxpayers more. It's mind boggling how just about everyone thinks Republicans and Trump have a mind for business.

[not fooled]

12. Yeah, just wait

Presumably the power provided by any of these plants (if built) will be considered part of the grid/pool of power available to all ratepayers. All ratepayers will be paying the cost of these plants = the idea that the tech oligarchs will be covering the cost is just another lie krasnov's administration tries to fob off on the public.

[flamingdem]

16. Same company that built the reactors at Fukushima

Just sayin...