The Department of Energy announces a conditional commitment of $17.5B in federal loans to accelerate construction of 10 Westinghouse AP1000 reactors across five two-reactor projects to add about 11GW of capacity and power nearly 10M homes.The financing targets long-lead components and flows to special purpose vehicles that must include Westinghouse and partner utilities contributing nearly $1B in equity per SPV while the loans will not fund construction directly.Seven utilities and energy companies have signed letters of intent for potential sites and the DOE plans to select five host projects as part of an effort to rebuild a domestic nuclear supply chain and cut timelines by up to three years.The program complements faster licensing, expanded testing at
Idaho National Laboratory and executive measures to secure fuel supplies and boost domestic nuclear manufacturing, though critics say large reactors remain costly and riskier than other low-carbon options.