US offers Constellation Energy up to $5 billion for reactor upgrades

The US Energy Department has conditionally offered Constellation Energy up to $5 billion in loans for reactor upgrades.

Constellation, the country’s largest nuclear power operator, plans to use the money to upgrade eight facilities in Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania.

The work is expected to add 1.1 gigawatts of capacity without building new power plants or transmission lines.

The United States needs more electricity as data centres for artificial intelligence, electric transport and cryptocurrency mining increase demand.

The upgrades are intended to produce enough power for more than 930,000 households and improve grid stability.

The loan could lower borrowing costs and speed up the projects, while the administration says hundreds of billions of dollars in loan programmes are available, mostly for nuclear power.