A new business partnership has helped to save the Clinton nuclear plant — and to serve Facebook parent Meta’s future AI ambitions.
Constellation Energy officially welcomed Meta into a landmark agreement which secured the current location of the plant for the next 20 years at a celebration Tuesday afternoon.
The agreement facilitates the expansion and relicensing of the plant following the expiration of Illinois’ Zero Emission Credit program in May 2027.
The Clinton plant has been in operation since 1987, has over 530 employees and contributes nearly $13.5 million in annual taxes and generations enough electricity to power over 800,000 homes.
“Many of you built your careers here, and I look forward—as we discuss with licensed renewal—to build another 20 years because of our partners,” said Nohra Plumey, site vice president at Clinton Clean Energy Center.
“I want to say thank you to the leadership of the state and the partnership of our customers [who] are securing the future of this plant for another two decades,” Plumey continued.
Officials at Meta said clean, reliable energy is essential for continuing their AI projects.
“There’s a lot of focus right now on building new energy infrastructure, which we know is needed given what’s out there, but at Meta, we also know that keeping reliable, clean plants like Clinton on the grid is just as important as building new ones,” said Kevin Janda, Meta's director for global data center strategy.
“This power is expanding technologies and drives the future of artificial intelligence, and today AI empowers people to engage more deeply with family, friends [and] customers, discovering new experiences,” Janda continued. “Looking ahead, we recognize AI’s vast potential to transform key areas such as productivity, education, scientific research and healthcare innovation. That doesn’t happen without energy.”
Constellation also announced it will be investing into several Clinton institutions. The company plans to devote $1 million to support workforce development, social services, education and local nonprofits over the next five years.
Meta will buy about 1.1 gigawatts of electricity from the plant in order to further their AI cause. The plant won’t power Meta’s data centers directly.
Plant manager Andrew Krukowski said Constellation is evaluating opportunities for expanding the current site to include an advanced reactor.
“There is that potential here at the site that we could build another unit here and continue to make more jobs in the area,” Krukowski said.
Federal approval for a second reactor was given to the plant previously under the ownership of Illinois Power Company, but construction was halted due to financial pressures. As of now, no official plans for a second reactor have been announced.
According to a news release from Constellation Energy, the company would need either an extension of an early site permit or a new construction permit from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to develop a new reactor.
