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The Trump administration has announced plans to issue $17.5 billion in loans to speed up the construction of 10 large nuclear reactors to meet surging power demand from data centers.

Getting into it: The Energy Department said Tuesday it would issue up to five conditional loans, each supporting two reactors at a single site, with funding used to buy long-lead components like reactor vessels and steam generators that can take years to make. The department says the financing could shave up to three years off the timelines, aiming to have all 10 reactors under construction by 2030 and producing power by the mid-2030s.

Each plant will be jointly owned by Westinghouse and a utility or energy partner, with both required to put up $500 million upfront before tapping the loans, which are capped at $3.5 billion per project. Seven potential partners have already signed letters of intent with Westinghouse and locked down sites, though the department won’t name the companies or locations until it narrows the field to five.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright cast the move as reviving a dormant domestic supply chain, saying it “drives down costs and accelerates nuclear deployment in America.” He pointed to “tremendous interest” from data-center hyperscalers, the tech giants running AI infrastructure, whose power needs are a central driver. Data centers used 4 to 5% of US electricity in 2024, a share that could nearly triple by 2028.

This all comes as the administration pursues Trump’s goal of quadrupling US nuclear capacity to 400 gigawatts by 2050, backed by executive orders to speed development.

Critics argue new nuclear remains too costly and slow next to renewables and gas, but the administration is betting volume construction changes the math, with Wright calling the loans “very, very low risk to the American taxpayers.”