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The Trump administration will partner with Westinghouse and two other companies to support at least $80 billion in new nuclear reactor projects nationwide (Reuters, subscription).

What’s going on: “Under the agreement with Westinghouse Electric, [uranium producer] Cameco and Brookfield Asset Management, the U.S. government will arrange financing and will help gain permits for the plants using Westinghouse reactors.”

• Though many details of the deal have not yet been made public, the companies said the U.S. government will receive a participation interest that, once vested, will entitle it to 20% of cash distributions above the $17.5 billion made by Westinghouse.
• Cameco and Brookfield completed their acquisition of Westinghouse in 2023.

The backdrop: The announcement comes just three months after Westinghouse told President Trump that it would build 10 large nuclear reactors in the U.S.

• The U.S. has constructed just two nuclear reactors in the past 30 years, both Westinghouse AP1000s, at Plant Vogtle in Georgia. Those were built in 2023 and 2024.

Why it’s important: U.S. energy demand is soaring, owing in large part to artificial intelligence-driven data center growth.

• National power consumption from these data centers is forecast to double in the next decade (BloombergNEF).
• The deal will create tens of thousands of jobs in the U.S., the companies said (Yahoo Finance).

Timmons says: “Building more nuclear reactors here at home is how we secure America’s energy future—and unleash American energy dominance,” said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons on X. “This partnership between the U.S. and Westinghouse demonstrates what’s possible when we invest in advanced, American-made energy to power our factories, our communities and our economy.”