On Monday, the Energy Department unveiled a conditional loan package of up to $4.2 billion to retail electricity and power generation company Vistra Corp. to finance upgrades to nuclear power plants in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The loan will fund the uprating—a process that increases electricity generation at existing power facilities by improving equipment—of three of Vistra's nuclear power plants. This includes a 1.3-gigawatt nuclear reactor in Perry, Ohio, a 900-megawatt nuclear reactor in Oak Harbor, Ohio, and a two-unit 1.9-gigawatt nuclear power plant in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. Together, the three power plants generate enough electricity to power roughly 3 million homes. Under the agreement, the Energy Department could expand its loan commitments to Vistra to include the company's Comanche Peak nuclear power plant in Texas. The agency said the deal as a whole could "add 433 megawatts (MW) of new nuclear capacity," although funding is contingent on Vistra meeting "certain technical, legal, environmental, and financial conditions."
