Walmart signs first nuclear power deal with Constellation in Illinois

Walmart locked in its first nuclear power purchase agreement on June 23, taking roughly 176 megawatts of wholesale supply from Constellation’s Dresden Clean Energy Center in Morris, Illinois. The deal includes 30 megawatts of expanded generating capacity, and Walmart will buy energy, environmental attributes and capacity through two 15-year terms starting in 2029 and 2030.

For Walmart workers, the clearest operational signal is not the energy label but the logistics behind it. The company said the agreement supports its previously announced high-tech perishable distribution center in Belvidere, Illinois, a facility built for cold-chain inventory, faster replenishment and tighter freshness control. In a network where produce, meat and dairy depend on steady power and automation, the contract helps secure the electricity behind those systems before the building comes online.

Belvidere sits inside Walmart’s broader grocery-network rebuild. The company announced the project in June 2023 as a 1.2 million-square-foot perishable distribution center expected to open in 2027, and later said it is one of five new high-tech perishable distribution centers in the transformation of its grocery network. Walmart said the five sites, which also include locations in Shafter, California, Lancaster, Texas, Wellford, South Carolina and Pilesgrove, New Jersey, will collectively bring around 2,000 new jobs into the communities they serve. Illinois economic-development material put the Belvidere project at $1.2 billion, with at least 450 jobs over five years and as many as 700 jobs in total.

The energy contract also lands against a sturdier nuclear backdrop. In December 2025, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved a 20-year subsequent license renewal for Dresden, allowing the reactors to operate through 2049 and 2051. Constellation said those renewals preserve 2,200 jobs and $8.1 billion in tax revenues, which matters in a region where grid reliability and plant life span shape whether large distribution projects can scale without interruption.

Dresden itself is one of Illinois’ most consequential power sites. Its two reactors can generate up to 1,845 megawatts of clean electricity, enough to power the equivalent of nearly 1.4 million homes, and the site also includes the nation’s first full-scale privately financed nuclear plant, retired in 1978 and later designated a Nuclear Historic Landmark. Walmart has framed the deal as part of a larger clean-energy strategy, including a January 2024 goal to help enable up to 10 gigawatts of new clean-energy projects by the end of 2030. In practical terms, this is Walmart tying power procurement to the expansion of the warehouses, cold storage and fulfillment systems that determine store availability, workload and the pace of new jobs on the ground.