Adds details on previous Westinghouse agreement, paragraph 7

By Valerie Volcovici

WASHINGTON, June 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Energy announced on Tuesday $17.5 billion in conditional loans for utilities and energy companies to purchase parts needed to strengthen the U.S. commercial nuclear supply chain.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told reporters the loans will help the U.S. achieve its goal of having 10 new large-scale nuclear reactors under construction by 2030, potentially accelerating that timeline by three years.

The U.S. industry has struggled to attract investment because nuclear projects are capital‑intensive, prone to cost overruns and subject to complex regulations, making them riskier than cheaper, quicker alternatives such as natural gas and renewables.

The loans would help companies procure items such as reactor vessels and steam generators, which can take years to secure, and potentially reduce the time to build large AP1000 nuclear plants.

Wright said the loans have attracted strong interest from data center hyperscalers — tech giants that run global cloud and computing infrastructure — and energy companies, as U.S. electricity demand soars with the rapid buildout of data centers to power AI capabilities.

"We are confident that these projects will be economic for utility shareholders, ratepayers and hyperscalers," Wright said.

The loan announcement comes months after the DOE announced an $80 billion agreement with Westinghouse Electric's owners, Canada-based Cameco CCO.TO and Brookfield Asset Management BAM.N, in which the government would arrange financing and help secure permits for the Westinghouse reactors in exchange for a 20% share of future profits.

LOANS TO SUPPORT WESTINGHOUSE REACTORS

The Energy Department's Office of Energy Dominance Financing, formerly known as the Loan Programs Office, will back up to five loans, each of which will support two 1.1-gigawatt Westinghouse reactors per site.

Westinghouse will partner with up to five utilities and energy companies nationwide that will procure the reactors and other "long-lead" supply chain needs at a fixed price.

Wright said seven utilities have expressed interest, but would not disclose their names or project locations.

Each project will be jointly owned by Westinghouse and a utility or energy company, each required to commit $500 million before accessing DOE funds.

"This is not a risky endeavor," Wright said.

During President Donald Trump’s first term, the only use he made of the then-Loan Programs Office was for financing reactors at Georgia's Vogtle nuclear power plant.

Trump aims to quadruple U.S. nuclear power capacity to 400 gigawatts by 2050, an aggressive target given that the last reactors built in the U.S. were delayed seven years and went billions of dollars over budget.

Three shuttered nuclear plants are on track to restart in the coming years, including Palisades in Michigan, Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania and Duane Arnold in Iowa.

Wright said the Energy Department expects the plants' timing and cost to "well outperform what was done on Vogtle.”

Brookfield CEO Connor Teskey said the loans will jumpstart the industry's domestic revival.

"(The money) serves as a catalyst for nuclear, providing the certainty needed to enhance the domestic nuclear supply chain and accelerate construction of nuclear projects that will deliver reliable baseload power around the country for decades to come,” he said.