The U.S. Department of Energy has closed a $1 billion loan to support Constellation Energy’s effort to restart the shuttered nuclear plant at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, now officially known as the Christopher M. Crane Clean Energy Center. Constellation is seeking to bring the 835 MW reactor back online, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is conducting a restart review that the agency has described as novel for a commercial plant in this posture. Constellation has also said the project is running ahead of schedule, according to Reuters. The effort is a high-profile test of whether the United States can add firm electricity supply fast enough to meet rising demand tied to artificial intelligence and data center growth.
A Billion-Dollar Bet on a Dormant Reactor
The reactor at Three Mile Island Unit 1 entered permanent cessation on September 26, 2019, according to the NRC’s detailed reactor profile for the facility. For years, the site sat idle, its operating license effectively frozen. That changed when the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office closed a $1 billion financing package to Constellation Energy Generation, LLC to help restart the 835 MW Crane Clean Energy Center, as described in the agency’s announcement on the federal loan closing. The NRC says it has not previously taken a commercial reactor in this decommissioning posture back through a full restart review to operational status, making the project a first-of-its-kind financial and engineering challenge with national implications.
The loan fits within a broader federal push to rebuild domestic nuclear capacity. A White House executive action focused on strengthening the nuclear base lays out the administration’s rationale for treating existing reactor sites as strategic assets rather than cleanup liabilities. Related federal programs, including advanced research efforts run through the Department of Energy’s ARPA‑E portfolio and long-term deployment planning under the Genesis initiative, signal that Washington views nuclear power as central to long-term grid reliability. The Crane loan, however, is where those policy concepts become a concrete test case, channeling federal risk capital into a single, politically sensitive site in Pennsylvania.
NRC Restart Review Breaks New Ground
Bringing the Crane Clean Energy Center back to operational status requires more than money. Constellation must gain NRC approval to restore the plant’s licensing basis, a process that involves demonstrating every system and program meets current safety standards. The regulator has created a dedicated CCEC Restart Panel, documented under accession number ML25013A196, to manage the review. That panel is evaluating submissions Constellation has already filed, including a decommissioning quality assurance and restoration quality assurance program and detailed information on the condition of critical components such as steam generator tubes. These technical filings form the backbone of the safety case for restarting a reactor that has been cold for years and must now prove it can meet modern regulatory expectations.
The regulatory path is genuinely novel. The NRC has not previously walked a fully decommissioned commercial reactor back through the licensing process to operational status, so there is no established playbook. Every inspection finding, component assessment, and procedural approval sets a precedent that could either accelerate or slow future restart attempts at other shuttered plants. If the NRC clears the Crane Center efficiently while maintaining its safety bar, it creates a workable template other operators can follow. If the review bogs down in unanticipated technical questions, the economics of nuclear restarts could shift against similar projects before they even begin, discouraging utilities from viewing dormant sites as viable options for meeting surging demand.
Grid Pressure and the AI Power Surge
The urgency behind this restart is tied directly to regional grid stress. Rising demand for electricity from AI workloads and data centers is straining the PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator covering much of the mid‑Atlantic and parts of the Midwest. PJM and federal regulators have warned of tightening supply-demand conditions, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved a PJM proposal for fast‑tracking new plants to address reliability concerns, according to the Associated Press. A single 835 MW nuclear unit coming online would deliver a substantial block of carbon‑free baseload power into a system that is grappling with both reliability concerns and decarbonization goals.
Most public discussion of the AI‑driven electricity crunch focuses on natural gas buildouts or renewable installations. Gas plants face permitting resistance and carbon concerns, while solar and wind require large‑scale storage investments to provide the kind of round‑the‑clock output that data centers demand. A restarted nuclear plant sidesteps both issues: it generates power continuously regardless of weather, and it produces zero direct carbon emissions. That combination explains why Constellation and the federal government are willing to take on the financial and regulatory risk of reviving a facility that still carries the historical weight of the 1979 partial meltdown at the adjacent Unit 2 reactor, even as they argue that modern safety culture and oversight fundamentally alter the risk profile.
Ahead of Schedule, but Hurdles Remain
Constellation Energy reported that the Crane nuclear plant restart was running ahead of schedule as of September 2025, according to a project update cited by Reuters coverage. For a project of this complexity, that timeline is notable. Construction and licensing efforts for nuclear projects in the United States have historically slipped by years rather than months. The fact that early‑stage physical work and regulatory submissions are proceeding faster than planned is notable for a U.S. nuclear project of this complexity; however, schedule performance will ultimately depend on what the NRC requires during its review and what plant-condition findings emerge during inspections and restoration work.
Still, the project faces real risks that the “ahead of schedule” framing can obscure. The NRC Restart Panel has not yet issued a final determination on restoring the plant’s operational licensing basis. As reflected in the NRC’s restart documentation and information requests, topics such as steam generator tube condition, plant condition after years of inactivity, and the adequacy of Constellation’s quality assurance programs are among the areas the regulator will need to be satisfied with before any restart steps such as fuel loading. On the financing side, federal infrastructure tools cataloged through the Department of Energy’s infrastructure exchange may help manage cost overruns, but they do not eliminate them. If unexpected technical findings force significant repairs or design changes, the cost profile of the restart could shift quickly, testing both Constellation’s balance sheet and public patience with nuclear spending.
What a Successful Restart Would Mean for U.S. Nuclear
The Crane project is being watched closely by policymakers, utilities, and researchers who see dormant reactors as a potential bridge between today’s aging fleet and tomorrow’s advanced designs. If the restart succeeds on time and within budget, it will demonstrate that existing sites can be repurposed more quickly than greenfield nuclear projects, leveraging grid interconnections, transmission corridors, and community familiarity with plant operations. That lesson would resonate across the nuclear ecosystem, from utilities evaluating whether to keep marginal plants in “mothball” status to state regulators considering how to value firm, low‑carbon capacity in their resource planning processes.
Research institutions and national laboratories are also likely to mine the Crane experience for insights. Technical data and historical operating information preserved in repositories like the Department of Energy’s scientific archive can inform both the restart itself and future projects that seek to extend reactor lifetimes or convert legacy sites to new technologies. In that sense, the Christopher M. Crane Clean Energy Center is more than a single plant coming back online; it is a live experiment in whether the United States can turn nuclear’s past liabilities into future assets. If it works, the project could mark the beginning of a new chapter in American nuclear power, one where the fastest way to add clean, firm capacity is not always to build from scratch, but sometimes to bring a sleeping giant back to life.
More from Morning Overview
*This article was researched with the help of AI, with human editors creating the final content.
