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Google Is Paying to Squeeze 890 Megawatts Out of Reactors Already Running

Close-up detail of a massive steam turbine blade and bolted steel casing on a plant floor, oil sheen on metal, overhead industrial lamps, au

Alphabet will buy 890 megawatts of new nuclear capacity that will not come from a new plant. It will come from turbines, steam generators, and digital controls at 11 reactors Constellation Energy already owns.

Google and Constellation announced the 20-year power purchase agreement on October 6. The uprates cover 11 units at six sites in Illinois, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. The first increment is expected in 2028, with the rest due before the end of 2032. Constellation will invest more than $4.3 billion. The companies said the work will help sustain about 4,400 existing jobs and create about 7,200 construction jobs. They also signed a separate 15-year energy supply agreement for an additional 2,700 megawatts from Constellation's existing PJM fleet, bringing contracted power to about 3,590 megawatts. PJM, the largest U.S. grid operator, serves 13 states and about 67 million people. Constellation shares jumped 12.3 percent on the news.

A nuclear uprate modernizes equipment at a running plant to raise electrical output without a greenfield reactor. Google said it is the anchor customer so other ratepayers do not carry the cost, a pitch aimed at PJM's "Bring Your Own Power" debate and a White House ratepayer-protection pledge. Google now says its uprate and restart deals have enabled more than 1.5 gigawatts of U.S. nuclear capacity, approaching a quarter of the Energy Department's 5-gigawatt expansion goal for 2030. Constellation will also deploy Google Cloud and Gemini Enterprise under a five-year technology alliance for site selection, interconnection planning, and plant operations. Amanda Peterson Corio, Google's global head of energy and power, framed the deal as adding capacity without shifting costs onto households. Constellation chief executive Joe Dominguez called it a model for how technology companies can fund infrastructure privately.

The second-order buyer is not a utility commission. It is a data-center operator that cannot wait a decade for a new reactor and cannot keep raiding a constrained mid-Atlantic grid. Google is not inventing nuclear. It is writing a 20-year check so 11 old machines make more megawatts, and wrapping Gemini around the outage schedule. If AI load keeps climbing, the scarce object is not another chatbot. It is a turbine that already has a license.

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