Today in Ohio - Oct. 6, 2026 Nuclear power's potential will take a leap in Northeast Ohio

We're talking about a $4.2 billion loan, and it is a loan, it's not a gift, and it's going to the Perry Nuclear Plant, that's the most important part of this, uh, plan, but it also is going to Davis Besse and Beaver Valley.

So together, they're getting that $4.2 billion to upgrade the nuclear plants to create more electricity for the entire grid, not just for a data center that Meta might be building.

So this additional power won't be coming until 2031, but the Perry plant alone could power about 150,000 homes just under the upgrades that would be supported by this federal loan.

And this would happen during scheduled refueling shutdowns, already set to happen in 2029 and 2031.

A- work across the three plants is gonna take eight years, support about 3,000 jobs, and it is good news.

There are a lot of unanswered questions here.

Well, I, yeah, we do have a lot of unanswered question, but it, it sounds like when, when Meta and Facebook came forward and said, "We're gonna buy the extra capacity here," we thought they were gonna pay for the extra capacity, but maybe it's that they're, they're the customer for a lot of it-

Mm-hmm

... and this money is what will be used to build the capacity, and then it has to be paid back.

Right.

That's, like I said, questions, but Meta agreed to pay above the market prices for the electricity to help keep the plants running longer and increase their production.

So they said, "We're gonna buy it.

We're gonna pay more than the market price." And now the federal government is stepping in on how they can have the capital to do those improvements, and then Vistra, which is the company that owns this, has to pay it back, and I guess Vistra will be getting paid by Meta above market rates for their power.

So this seems like a three-part system that we're talking about.

They're all s- helping each other, and they say helping all of us, that this is helping the entire grid, not just across Ohio and Pennsylvania, but the entire 13-state region that PJM serves, and that that way we will not all be paying jacked-up prices because of data centers.

Ha.

Yeah, we will.

[laughs]

We'll still be paying that.

I- the- what's odd is, nobody talks about this, but the, the Perry plant always had the capacity for another reactor.

It was always planned to have one, and with the reactor science getting them smaller, I'm surprised nobody has proposed that.

I'm sure it would be hugely unpopular up in that part of our region, but, but it was designed for that, and I keep waiting for them to come forward and say, "Yeah, we're going to propose another reactor up here."

I think that would be really unpopular.

One question that I, I don't think we know the full answers to is how much the local officials have a say in this plan, right? They come in.

They say they're gonna do it.

We're talking about a $4.2 billion loan, and it is a loan, it's not a gift, and it's going to the Perry Nuclear Plant, that's the most important part of this, uh, plan, but it also is going to Davis Besse and Beaver Valley.

So together, they're getting that $4.2 billion to upgrade the nuclear plants to create more electricity for the entire grid, not just for a data center that Meta might be building.

So this additional power won't be coming until 2031, but the Perry plant alone could power about 150,000 homes just under the upgrades that would be supported by this federal loan.

And this would happen during scheduled refueling shutdowns, already set to happen in 2029 and 2031.

A- work across the three plants is gonna take eight years, support about 3,000 jobs, and it is good news.

There are a lot of unanswered questions here.

Well, I, yeah, we do have a lot of unanswered question, but it, it sounds like when, when Meta and Facebook came forward and said, "We're gonna buy the extra capacity here," we thought they were gonna pay for the extra capacity, but maybe it's that they're, they're the customer for a lot of it-

Mm-hmm

... and this money is what will be used to build the capacity, and then it has to be paid back.

Right.

That's, like I said, questions, but Meta agreed to pay above the market prices for the electricity to help keep the plants running longer and increase their production.

So they said, "We're gonna buy it.

We're gonna pay more than the market price." And now the federal government is stepping in on how they can have the capital to do those improvements, and then Vistra, which is the company that owns this, has to pay it back, and I guess Vistra will be getting paid by Meta above market rates for their power.

So this seems like a three-part system that we're talking about.

They're all s- helping each other, and they say helping all of us, that this is helping the entire grid, not just across Ohio and Pennsylvania, but the entire 13-state region that PJM serves, and that that way we will not all be paying jacked-up prices because of data centers.

Ha.

Yeah, we will.

[laughs]

We'll still be paying that.

I- the- what's odd is, nobody talks about this, but the, the Perry plant always had the capacity for another reactor.

It was always planned to have one, and with the reactor science getting them smaller, I'm surprised nobody has proposed that.

I'm sure it would be hugely unpopular up in that part of our region, but, but it was designed for that, and I keep waiting for them to come forward and say, "Yeah, we're going to propose another reactor up here."

I think that would be really unpopular.

One question that I, I don't think we know the full answers to is how much the local officials have a say in this plan, right? They come in.

They say they're gonna do it.