Morning Brief · October 29th 2026
The Energy Department offers $5 billion to add 1.1 gigawatts to nuclear plants already sold to Google, Amazon and Meta
The US Department of Energy has made a conditional commitment to lend Constellation Energy up to $5 billion to 11 reactors at eight plants in Illinois, Maryland and Pennsylvania, adding about 1.1 , TechCrunch reported Wednesday. Most or all of the added output from seven of the eight plants is already contracted to Google, Amazon and Meta.
An uprate squeezes more power out of a reactor that already exists, which skips the decade-long siting and licensing of a new plant. It is the fastest firm power available to data centers, and the federal government is now lowering its financing cost. The commitment is not final. SourcesB
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This story ran in the Morning Brief of October 29th 2026.