Trump administration is planning to provide a $1 billion loan to help bring part of the Pennsylvania nuclear facility at Three Mile Island back online. The New York Times reports that the credit will be given to Constellation Energy — a company working with Microsoft to restore and restart the Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island. The project is expected to generate enough electricity to power 800,000 homes — and allow Microsoft to purchase a portion of the facility's output to power the company's artificial intelligence data centers. The Trump administration's loan covers more than half of the project's estimated $1.6 billion price tag — though past nuclear energy projects in the U.S. have frequently exceeded their original budgets. From a supply chain perspective, Constellation Energy Corporation, based in Baltimore, Maryland, became independent through a spinoff from Exelon in 2022 — making it the U.S.'s largest competitive nuclear operator. Constellation operates 21 nuclear reactors with a combined capacity of 22 GW.
Neither Constellation nor the Energy Department has provided details on the loan or its terms. Three Mile Island was shut down in 1979 — following the Unit 2 reactor's partial meltdown and release of small amounts of radioactive material into the surrounding region. The non-operational Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island had its restart plan announced by Constellation in 2024 — financed with a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Microsoft. From a supply chain perspective, the U.S. DOE (Department of Energy) Loan Programs Office (LPO) manages the ATVM (Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing), Title 17, and Tribal Energy Loan Guarantee programs to finance large-scale clean energy projects. Chris Wright is the Trump 2.0 Energy Secretary — with fossil fuel experience as former CEO of Liberty Energy but also supporting nuclear energy. Three Mile Island Unit 1 is an 837 MW capacity Babcock & Wilcox-designed PWR (Pressurized Water Reactor) — which was shut down in 2019. The restart is officially named the Crane Clean Energy Center — named in honor of Christopher Crane, known as the mentor to Constellation's CEO Joseph Dominguez.
From a supply chain perspective, the global nuclear energy renaissance is being triggered by the explosive electricity demand of AI data centers. Microsoft, Google (Alphabet), Amazon (AWS), Meta, and Oracle are the major hyperscalers — leading the way in nuclear and other 24/7 clean energy PPAs. Google has signed with Kairos Power (SMR); Amazon with X-energy (SMR) and Talen Energy (Susquehanna nuclear); Meta, Constellation, and Oracle have signed multiple nuclear agreements with Sama Resources and Centrus. Westinghouse Electric, GE Vernova Hitachi Nuclear Energy, BWXT, NuScale Power, TerraPower (Bill Gates), X-energy, Holtec International, Oklo, Last Energy, and Aalo Atomics are the main SMR (Small Modular Reactor) and nuclear technology players. EDF (Électricité de France), Rosatom (Russia), CNNC (China), and KEPCO (South Korea) are the major players in large-scale reactor exports globally.
From a supply chain perspective, the nuclear fuel supply chain consists of stages including uranium mining (Cameco, Kazatomprom, Orano, Uranium One), conversion (Cameco, Orano, Rosatom), enrichment (Urenco, Orano, Rosatom, Centrus), and fuel fabrication (Westinghouse, Framatome, Global Nuclear Fuel, Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel). HALEU (High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium) is critical for SMRs and advanced reactors — but the U.S. faces a supply gap due to dependence on Russia. Kazakhstan, Canada, Australia, Namibia, Niger, Russia, Uzbekistan, and the U.S. are the leading countries in global uranium production. The NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) is the U.S. nuclear safety regulator. Data center power, colocated nuclear, behind-the-meter, and front-of-the-meter are the main frameworks of AI-era nuclear sales models. In conclusion, the Trump administration's Three Mile Island loan is a concrete indication of the public-private financing model of the U.S. nuclear renaissance.
Key Highlights:
1. Trump administration extends $1 billion loan for Three Mile Island Unit 1.
2. Constellation Energy partners with Microsoft to restart the facility.
3. 800,000 homes electricity capacity — allocated for AI data centers.
4. Estimated total cost $1.6 billion — with cost overruns experienced in the past.
5. Three Mile Island was shut down in 1979 following Unit 2's partial meltdown.
