October 27, 2026
WHEN: Today, Tuesday, October 27, 2026
WHERE: CNBC’s “Power Lunch”
Following is the unofficial transcript of a CNBC interview with U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on CNBC’s “Power Lunch” (M-F, 2PM-3PM ET) today, Tuesday, October 27 live from Byron, IL to discuss new loan financing to help power the country’s nuclear buildout. Following are links to video on CNBC.com: https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/10/27/constellation-secures-conditional-loan-commitment-of-up-to-5-billion-from-energy-department.html and https://www.cnbc.com/video/2026/10/27/watch-cnbcs-full-interview-with-energy-secretary-chris-wright.html.
All references must be sourced to CNBC.
BRIAN SULLIVAN: Alright, welcome back. The Department of Energy continues to work to build out America's nuclear power capacity. And Secretary of Energy Christopher Wright is in Illinois today at a huge Exelon power plant, where he's rolling out billions in new loan financing today and to help power America's nuclear build-out. We are proud once again to welcome Secretary Wright with us from the nuclear power plant in Illinois, and welcome him on to talk about that, oil, Russian diesel, and maybe more. Secretary Wright, it's a pleasure to have you back on “Power Lunch.” Thank you for joining us.
CHRIS WRIGHT: Brian, thanks for having me.
SULLIVAN: All right, so you're there to talk about nuclear. You're offering up a couple of billion dollars or more than that in potential financing. What would the money be used for? Who would be takers of that money? And what would it get America's power grid?
WRIGHT: So, Brian, the deal here is with Constellation Energy. They're the largest operator of nuclear plants in the country. And the plan is to take 15 reactors at eight different locations and uprate them, meaning the plant behind me would get another 150 megawatts of power output. And for the total loan amount, we'd get 1.1 gigawatts of new power capacity, all from existing power plants. So it's significantly more energy, puts downward pressure on rates, allows more manufacturing, more jobs to be created in the area served by these plants.
SULLIVAN: Do we feel like this is a sea change? I think it's important that you're in Illinois, because the irony of Illinois is that they've got almost more nuclear power than most states, maybe more than any state out there, but yet have been reluctant to build new nuclear capacity for a couple of decades. Do you feel like, Mr. Secretary, this is a real sea change moment in how America sort of reembraces nuclear?
WRIGHT: It definitely is. In fact, the plant behind me a little over five years ago was days away from being closed. Yes, look, Democrat energy policies, subsidies for intermittent power had made it very hard to make the economics work even for existing nuclear power plants. President Trump has come in with, we're going to add energy to America, not just energy production, but energy demand. Those two things working together has made America revive nuclear power. We're restarting three power plants, uprating power plants all across the country, and soon you'll be hearing announcements about new reactors being constructed. So, yes, the nuclear renaissance is real, Brian. It's happening.
KELLY EVANS: Mr. Secretary, it's Kelly here. If you don't mind, I'd just like to ask you about some of the headlines today. You're hopefully more in the know that Iran's leader, supreme leader, asking for some kind of meeting. There's kind of regional leaders gathering in Tehran trying to figure out, how do you, how do you and how should we read all of these events as it relates back to the oil price?
WRIGHT: Well, look, Iran has done everything they can to disrupt energy markets, not just in the Arabian Gulf. You have seen in the Red Sea, in firing missiles at civilian commercial ships. It's been outrageous behavior. The world's getting frustrated by that. You saw the British prime minister was in the Middle East region just a few days ago. So, hopefully, Iran is contemplating changing their policies. Waging economic war against the world so that they can build nuclear weapons and terrorize the region for generations to come, that's not a good plan. But that has been the plan they have pursued all out. President Trump said that's not going to succeed. The United States is going to stand in the way of that. And if we see an Iran come to their senses and back down, that would be tremendous news for everybody, not just for Americans and the world economy, but for the 90 million Iranians that have been tyrannized, murdered, and brutalized by this regime.
SULLIVAN: If things re-accelerate in the region, Mr. Secretary, let's hope they don't, but if they did, do you and your team and the U.S. Navy and others have a plan to continue to help get all the necessary products out of that region, not just crude oil, but everything else that goes along?
WRIGHT: Absolutely, Brian. Look, that's, every day, the U.S. military, since this conflict started, we have been working about how to get products out in spite of Iran's behavior. We have seen an increase in the flow of refined products out of the Arabian Gulf region. That, those are on just ships right now, but that will help bring gasoline and diesel and jet fuel prices down. Depending upon what Iran does, those efforts will be ramped up even more.
EVANS: And also wanted to ask you about these Russian diesel shipments, this shipment that is headed for the U.S. I think we can even show its progress. We have kind of been tracking it here on the show, just because it's such a strange phenomenon to watch a country that is frustrating the world with its continued attacks on Ukraine, driving up all of these prices, and then we have to bring in diesel from that very country to try to ease our strain. So, do you have any concerns about that diesel product coming in? Is there a way in which our refineries or some other ally could step up and fill the void?
WRIGHT: Well, look, it's a global shortage of diesel. It is a global problem. This is President Trump trying to use different diplomacy to achieve an end that has not been achieved. This war is almost 5 years old. It is a murderous, horrific war. It's not going well for Russia. It's been a disaster for Ukraine, and President Trump is trying to find a way to bring peace. Russia can't export diesel right now. They're short diesel themselves. So this one ship going out of their things, this is a sign, if you end the war, if you reduce the conflict, there's a little bit of an economic carrot. But they have to change their behavior to get any meaningful value for it. So, look at it, look at it as an incentive to end the war that on the margin helps global diesel supply.
SULLIVAN: So, is there a chance, and there's been some report, the FT had a report there might have been three ships. Is there a chance that this one ship will turn into more ships then, Mr. Secretary?
WRIGHT: It's quite possibly, we have done a temporary six-month suspension of sanctions, not on Russian oil, not on any other Russian products, only on diesel, which is the one product they have not exported for many weeks. So, everyone calls this going soft on Russia. It is not. It's trying to put a carrot in front of Russia, saying, you can lower the conflict. You can produce a little more diesel than you consume. We will let it flow to the world markets.
SULLIVAN: I want to wrap with this, Mr. Secretary. Next week, I will be in Europe. I'm going to talk about, as what I have been reporting on here for five years, which is Europe's growing energy crisis. U.S. LNG, liquefied natural gas, has largely saved Europe, kept the lights and the heat on in many ways. This year, we go into Europe, they're below average on storage. Prices are soaring. There are some potential changes around wonky methane regulations in Europe. Do you anticipate that U.S. LNG will continue to flow at large rates to our allies and friends in Europe, who desperately, maybe more than any other time in five years, need it?
WRIGHT: Absolutely. U.S. is rapidly ramping up our LNG exports. They grew a lot this year. They will grow a significant amount next year. We're there to help, help Europe get off of Russian gas, which is one of their goals. They're not off it yet, but the ramping U.S. supplies is going to allow them to do that. But, Brian, I share your concerns. Their storage is lower than it should be going into this winter. I think they're being a little cavalier about that. If they have a cold winter, it'll be rough times in Europe this winter. I don't want to see that happen. I want to see American exports ramp up as rapidly as they can, and Europe to fill up a little bit more on their natural gas supplies before winter cold arrives.
SULLIVAN: U.S. Energy Secretary Christopher Wright in Illinois at a nuclear power plant announcing billions in new loans to help build out the nuclear program. Mr. Secretary, really appreciate your time, sir. Wish we could be there. Thank you very much.
WRIGHT: Thanks, Brian. Thanks, Kelly.
SULLIVAN: Thank you.
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Stephanie Hirlemann
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