The conditional commitment aims to boost output across 15 reactors in three states, expanding clean power capacity far faster than building new reactors.

Constellation Energy’s Clinton nuclear power plant in Clinton, Illinois (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

The pro-nuclear Trump administration continues to put its money where its mouth is.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a conditional loan commitment of up to $5 billion to boost the output of 15 reactors at eight nuclear power plants in Illinois, Maryland, and Pennsylvania by a combined 1.1 gigawatts. 

It’s the latest sign of Trump’s support for the United States’ biggest existing source of carbon-free electricity that doesn’t vary with weather conditions. It’s also the third multibillion-dollar ​“uprate” announcement in a month relating to Constellation Energy, which runs the plants as part of the country’s largest commercial nuclear reactor fleet. 

On Sept. 30, Constellation revealed that it had finalized a power purchase agreement with Amazon in support of a 190-megawatt uprate at its 1,790-MW Calvert Cliffs nuclear plant in Maryland. Then, on October 6, the company said it would spend $4.3 billion in partnership with Google to increase generating capacity at 11 of its nuclear plants by a total of 890 MW.

Among the eight facilities announced by the DOE this week, at least six could get funding from multiple sources: the 2 , 317 -MW Limerick power plant in Pennsylvania, which Constellation spokesperson Paul Adams said earlier this month would increase its output by 348 MW ; the Braidwood, Byron, LaSalle, and Quad Cities plants in Illinois; and Calvert Cliffs.

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