🚀Facebook’s Nuclear Megadeal

Facebook’s parent company, Meta, just signed its biggest energy deal ever—and it’s nuclear. Starting mid-2027, it will buy all of Constellation’s Clinton plant annual output—1,121 MW—for 20-years. 

This plant (which features a boiling water reactor) was nearly shut down in the 2010s—only saved by a state contract-for-difference. That expires in 2027, and Meta’s deal takes the handoff.

And there’s more. Constellation will also boost output by 30 MW and is considering a second unit—up to a full AP1000—thanks to an existing NRC Early Site Permit for additional 2.2 GW.

Meta’s electricity demand has tripled since 2019 (thanks, AI overlords). Meta’s Clinton deal is about long-term positioning: energy security, emissions goals, and ensuring their AI empire doesn’t run out of clean electrons—enter nuclear.

This Clinton Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) is just one part of Meta’s bigger nuclear push. Back in December Meta announced a plan to secure 1–4 GW of new U.S. nuclear capacity by the early 2030s.

As part of that, it launched an RFP focused on shovel-ready projects with fast-track permitting and site approvals. Meta has received over 50 proposals and is now in final negotiations with a shortlist of contenders.

They’re not dabbling—they’re planning for a gigawatt-scale nuclear future and only want partners who can deliver.

This is what Constellation had to say about the PPA:

Meta knows what power source civilization runs on. And it's not solar at night.

🎥Here’s CNBC’s take on the deal:

⚛️For the Nu-clearly Curious

🤝Czechs sign $18 billion nuclear power plant deal with KHNP
The Czech state-controlled company EDU II and South Korea's KHNP signed final contracts to build two new nuclear power reactors (APR1000). A Czech high court gave the green light to the $18.6 billion transaction, the country's biggest procurement deal ever, and a key part of the state's drive to replace ageing coal and nuclear units.

⚙️Economic & job creation benefits of investing in nuclear highlighted in new report
According to a report by Deloitte, increasing installed nuclear capacity in the EU from 106 GW to 150 GW by 2050 would generate over $379bn in annual economic output and support nearly 1.5 million jobs across the EU.

💪Uranium Stays Resilient in May With Miners Showing Upside
"Despite the tariff volatility uranium has been a proverbial rock among the crashing waves. The metal has been exhibiting resilience amid renewed interest from investors backed by solid fundamentals."

🔄Holtec targets US-wide nuclear reactor fleet using learnings at Palisades
Along with restarting the 800MW Palisades Nuclear plant in October this year, Holtec will build two 300MW SMR's by 2030 with a target of deploying a 10 GW SMR fleet at existing & former Nuclear plants in US.

🏗️ Westinghouse Wants to Build 10 Nuclear Reactors Across the U.S

Westinghouse is going big—really big. The U.S.-based nuclear developer is in talks with US officials and industry partners about deploying 10 large nuclear reactors to meet the goals of President Trump’s executive orders.

Westinghouse already has the licensed design (AP1000), a working supply chain, and a resume that includes reactors now generating power in the U.S., China, and under construction in Europe.

The May 23 executive orders laid out an aggressive blueprint: 10 new reactors under construction by 2030, streamlined permitting, and billions in federal backing.

Westinghouse says it’s “uniquely positioned” to deliver: no vaporware, no science projects—just steel, fuel, and proven tech.

The company has real-world modular construction experience from the U.S. and China, and says lessons learned from the Vogtle delays have been fully integrated.

Vogtle’s AP1000s ran over $17 billion per unit. Westinghouse now says it can deliver for $7.5 billion/unit (totaling $75 billion) using frozen designs and serial builds. Proof that nuclear gets cheaper the more you build.

🧠 Strategic context: Westinghouse has little competition. Russia and China are off the table. EDF is out. GE-Hitachi is focused on SMRs. Korea’s Kepco has never built at U.S. scale.

Critics argue the U.S. market isn’t built to support large reactor investments. But that’s exactly what these executive orders aim to fix—by making nuclear financing simpler, faster, and less risky. The old Vogtle-era barriers are crumbling.

Meanwhile, SMR developers are pitching modular projects as a cheaper alternative. But even they admit it will take multiple small reactors—at unknown cost—to match a single AP1000.

💡 TL;DR: Westinghouse is pitching 10 new AP1000s across the U.S.—a $75B play backed by frozen designs, modular builds, and executive support.

This is what scaling baseload looks like. Let’s go.

💌Fun Historical Artifact

Even the US postal service went nuclear in the '50s. In 1955, the U.S. Postal Service dropped this glowing endorsement of nuclear optimism—a 3¢ stamp honoring Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” speech.

🗻Japan Lifts 60-Year Cap on Nuclear Reactors

Japan just enacted a law allowing nuclear reactors to operate beyond the previous 60-year limit—a clean 180° from its post-Fukushima stance.

The amended law lets plants extend operations to account for downtime caused by “unforeseeable circumstances,” such as long safety upgrades after the 2011 disaster. One example? A reactor in Fukui Prefecture that’s been offline since 2011 will now be allowed to run until 2047—72 years after it first came online.

This is more than just a technical tweak. Japan is returning to nuclear to:

• Tackle its massive fossil fuel dependence

• Meet surging electricity demand from AI and chip factories

• Stabilize the grid after global energy market turmoil

Japan is the world's fifth largest emitter of carbon dioxide after China, the United States, India and Russia.

The change comes as Japan drops language about “minimizing nuclear” from its energy plan and targets nuclear to supply ~20% of the grid by 2040 (up from 5.6% in 2022).

🔋 Bottom line: After years of hesitation, Japan is officially back in the nuclear game—and its aging fleet is now getting the policy runway to keep running well into the 2040s.

In this new era, nuclear plants are immortal—and laws like this are the proof.

🌌 Terraforming Mars... with Nukes?

Welcome back to Atomic Alternatives—where we explore how nuclear tech quietly shows up in wild, unexpected places.

This week, we're heading to space, because apparently just colonizing Mars wasn’t ambitious enough.

What if we nuked it first?

☢️ The Theory

Back in the day, Carl Sagan floated the idea that a few well-placed nukes could help terraform Mars by vaporizing its polar ice caps, releasing enough CO₂ to thicken the atmosphere and warm the planet.

🔥 The Goal:

Warm up Mars by releasing greenhouse gases.

Jumpstart an atmosphere thick enough to (eventually) support life.

Melt ice = liquid water = potential for agriculture, microbes, and maybe even your future Mars bar franchise.

💣 The Method:

Detonate thermonuclear bombs over the poles. The radiation wouldn’t reach the surface (they’d explode at high altitude), but the energy would blast the ice into gas, triggering a chain reaction of warming and atmospheric expansion.

😬 The Catch(es):

You’d need a lot of nukes. Like, thousands.

Mars might not have enough CO₂ to create a truly Earth-like atmosphere, no matter how many bombs you toss.

Also... international law sort of frowns on nuking entire planets, even dead ones. (Thanks to the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.)

🌍 TL;DR:

Yes, nukes could warm Mars. But it might be easier (and more ethical) to just build greenhouses and ship some solar panels. Still, the idea isn’t totally nuts—it’s just nuclear.

If you’ve ever watched The Martian and thought “this could use more explosions,” you’re not alone.

😂Meme of The Week

Until next time: stay charged, stay critical (like a reactor), and keep glowing.😎

– Fredrik
📬[email protected]
🔗 nuclearupdate.com