US to Finance 5 New Nuclear Plants for Data Centers

The U.S. Department of Energy announced on June 23 that it will finance five eligible large-scale nuclear power plants, each equipped with two Westinghouse reactors. This initiative, backed by $17.5 billion in conditional loans, aims to revitalize the supply chain for commercial nuclear reactor construction and expects plants to be under construction by 2030. Secretary Chris Wright stated these loans are crucial for America to resume building large-scale commercial reactors. Westinghouse has secured letters of intent with seven potential partners who have project sites in consideration, though neither partners nor locations have been disclosed.

Each reactor is projected to generate 1.1 gigawatts of power, with the combined 10 reactors capable of powering approximately 10 million homes. This significant energy production capacity is being developed in response to a dramatic increase in the construction of power-intensive data centers across the nation. Goldman Sachs projects that data center power demand will more than double between 2025 and 2027, although only 50% to 60% of planned capacity is expected to come online due to delays and cancellations. Currently, over 4,000 data centers operate in the U.S., with Virginia and Texas leading in numbers.

President Donald Trump previously urged data center developers to secure their own power sources, citing concerns about rising electricity bills for homeowners. The Department of Energy's financing is intended to accelerate the timeline for new power generation, as nuclear plants typically require nearly a decade to construct. The upfront financial commitment is a key factor in overcoming the challenges of building new nuclear facilities, which have seen limited success in recent decades.