Since coverage of Sweden's nuclear revival and the Iran-driven energy crunch pushing WTI crude past $96, the domestic nuclear buildout has received a significant regulatory push forward — though the full picture is more complicated than headlines suggest.

FERC Overrules Its Own Market Watchdog

On June 1, 2026, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved Constellation Energy's waiver request over the explicit objections of PJM Interconnection's independent market monitor, Monitoring Analytics, according to Utility Dive.

The watchdog whose entire job is market integrity said no. FERC said yes anyway.

Monitoring Analytics filed with FERC on April 21 arguing the request fails to meet the agency's own standards for issuing waivers — specifically that it would harm third parties. FERC approved it approximately six weeks after the filing.

What the Waiver Actually Does

Constellation gets to transfer 760 MW of Capacity Interconnection Rights from its Eddystone gas plant near Philadelphia to the Crane nuclear unit — formerly Three Mile Island Unit 1.

PJM had already determined that the grid couldn't safely handle full power delivery from the 835-MW Crane unit without major transmission upgrades. Those upgrades — 765-kV and 500-kV line projects — aren't expected to be complete until December 2030, according to Utility Dive. That timeline could slip further.

By transferring the CIRs from Eddystone, Constellation can potentially deliver the plant's full output the moment it restarts, bypassing the transmission constraint problem — at least on paper.

There's a catch. PJM itself didn't oppose the waiver, but made clear in its own filing that future transmission analysis will still determine when electricity from Crane can actually be fully delivered. The waiver clears a regulatory box. It doesn't fix the wires.

The Microsoft Connection

This whole restart exists because Microsoft needs power — a lot of it — for data centers.

Constellation's $1.6 billion plan to bring Crane back online is directly tied to a deal with Microsoft to supply those data centers, according to both Utility Dive and Sherwood News. The target restart window is the second half of 2027.

Big Tech's AI energy hunger is driving a nuclear plant back from the dead. With AI ROI questions mounting, the irony is sharp: the same tech companies under pressure to justify AI spending are simultaneously the ones pulling nuclear power out of mothballs to keep the servers running.

The Plutonium Story Running in Parallel

Also boosting nuclear sector stocks this week: the Department of Energy announcement that it would provide weapons-grade plutonium to five energy startups to be processed into reactor fuel.

Oklo is one of the five named companies, according to Sherwood News. Those startups are in "advanced negotiations" to purchase Cold War-era plutonium stockpiles, per OilPrice.com.

Decades of weapons-program leftovers becoming reactor fuel could get next-generation plants online faster than waiting for fresh fuel fabrication. The startups say it solves a near-term supply bottleneck as the industry scales.

Oklo, GE Vernova, Energy Fuels, and Cameco Corp. all traded higher following the announcement, according to Sherwood News.

The Iran Premium

WTI crude is sitting above $96 as of today. Brent at $97.20. Heating oil up over 4% in a single session.

The four-month-old Iran conflict — with the Strait of Hormuz still a question mark and Kuwait warning output won't recover for 10-12 weeks even after any reopening — is making every energy source that isn't Middle Eastern oil look more attractive. Nuclear is included.

The energy security argument for domestic nuclear is no longer theoretical. It's $96 crude and a closed strait.

The Transmission Timeline Problem

Most outlets are framing the FERC waiver as a clean "green light" for Three Mile Island. Constellation can get power from Crane to the grid starting in 2027. Whether it can deliver all 835 MW depends on wire upgrades that won't exist for at least four more years, if they stay on schedule.

Electricity consumers in the PJM region — covering 13 states from New Jersey to Illinois — should know that distinction. The full capacity benefit of this plant is years away from being operational.

The Emerging Energy Market

Nuclear is back. Not as a culture war talking point — as a genuine capital markets story, a national security story, and an energy security story all at once.

A Cold War plutonium stockpile is being converted to electricity. A plant famous for the worst U.S. nuclear accident is being revived to power AI servers. A FERC commission overrode its own market watchdog to speed the process up.

The energy world is moving fast. The grid is not. That gap — between political will and physical wire — is where infrastructure constraints will play out.