Stand Up for Nuclear

Nuclear uprates are suddenly having a moment. This week, the U.S. Department of Energy announced a conditional loan commitment of up to $4.2 billion to finance uprates and modernization across Vistra’s nuclear fleet in Pennsylvania and Ohio. The projects are expected to add 433 MW of new nuclear capacity while helping preserve nearly 4 GW of existing generation. It is part of a much broader push. DOE’s UPRISE initiative is targeting 2.5 GW of additional nuclear capacity by 2027 and 5 GW by 2029 through uprates, restarts, license extensions and other improvements to the existing fleet. DOE’s financing arm has more than $289 billion in available loan authority and can finance up to 80% of eligible costs for nuclear uprates. With all this attention and federal financing now flowing toward uprates, it is worth revisiting my Decouple conversation with @jbkrell (James Krellenstein) and @nuclear_robb (W. Robbie Stewart) of @alvaenergyio Energy, one of the companies pursuing this opportunity most aggressively. Alva believes roughly 10 GW of additional capacity could ultimately be unlocked from the existing U.S. nuclear fleet, with individual uprates adding roughly 250–300 MW. The basic proposition is compelling: before waiting a decade to build entirely new reactors, how many gigawatts can we squeeze out of the nuclear plants we already have?