Never Fully Decommissioned: The Energy Department's Loan to Restart a Pennsylvania Nuclear Plant

A Pennsylvania reactor that stopped running in 2019 is the subject of a federal loan for its restart. On November 18, 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy, DOE, said in a release that its Loan Programs Office had "closed a loan to lower energy costs and restart a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant." The release ties the restart to power for the region served by PJM and, in the Energy Secretary's words, to the effort to "win the AI race."

The loan and the plant

The lender is DOE's Loan Programs Office. The borrower is the company restarting the plant. The $1 billion loan "will help finance" what the release describes as "an 835 MW plant located on the Susquehanna River in Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania."

The money comes from a named program. The announcement is "funded by the Energy Dominance Financing (EDF) Program created under the Working Families Tax Cut."

Partially, and pending

The loan does not carry the whole restart. "The loan will partially finance the restart of a reactor which ceased operations in 2019 but was never fully decommissioned." Partially, in the release's own word. It does not say how the rest is paid for.

The power is conditional too. "Once restarted, pending U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing approvals, the 835 MW reactor will provide reliable and affordable baseload power to the PJM Interconnection region, powering the equivalent of approximately 800,000 homes." Once restarted, and pending approvals. The release gives no date for either.

The loan carries part of the cost, and the licensing is still to come. For anyone counting on this power, both are open in the release.

The AI race

In the release, the Energy Secretary says the restart "will provide affordable, reliable, and secure energy to Americans across the Mid-Atlantic region. It will also help ensure America has the energy it needs to grow its domestic manufacturing base and win the AI race."

Further on, the release says the project "will help lower electricity costs, strengthen grid reliability, create over 600 American jobs, and advance the Administration's mission to lead in global AI innovation and restore domestic manufacturing industries." It names no buyer for the reactor's power.

The release speaks of the AI race and names no buyer for the power. A reader weighing restarts as a source for data centers finds a region's grid in this release, not a contract.