The French government is preparing plans to offer interest-free loans to state-owned utility EDF to support the financing of six new nuclear reactors.

Reuters reported the news this week, citing two people familiar with the matter.

In addition to the financing, the government will offer EDF a contract for difference, providing a long-term guaranteed price for the power generated by the projects.

Plans for the reactors were first reveale77d in 2022. The six reactors are expected to have a combined capacity of 10GW, with construction due to commence in 2027.

The project's financing is expected to exceed €67 billion ($70.7bn), considerably higher than the initial expectation of €52 billion ($54.9bn).

The plan now requires approval from the French finance minister once EDF submits its final costings assessment, which is expected in the new year.

EDF is the world's largest nuclear power producer, providing France with 70 percent of its energy needs. In October 2024, EDF's nuclear output amounted to 30.0TWh, up 1.7TWh compared to the same period in 2023.

In recent months, the company has looked towards data centers as potential customers for their nuclear energy.

Earlier this month, the company reported that it was in discussions with three data center providers about supplying power for up to three 1GW data center projects in France.

In October, EDF launched Project Giga to meet the growing energy demand from artificial intelligence data centers. The project plans to leverage EDF’s land and grid connections to supply low-carbon power to major hyperscalers such as Microsoft and Google.

The move to a nuclear option for data centers has been most widely seen within the US market.

In September, Microsoft agreed to a 20-year PPA with Constellation Energy to acquire 100 percent of Pennsylvania's revived Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.

In March, Rival AWS acquired Talen Energy’s data center campus next to the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania for $650 million.