WASHINGTON, Aug 7 (Reuters) - The Trump administration

on Thursday said it issued a fifth installment of a loan

guarantee for Holtec International's Michigan nuclear plant,

which the company hopes will be the first U.S. reactor to

restart after shuttering.

The Department of Energy said it has now disbursed more than

$83 million of the up to $1.52 billion loan guarantee for the

800-megawatt Palisades reactor.

The conditional loan guarantee was initiated by former

President Joe Biden's Loan Programs Office to support nuclear

energy, which generates virtually emissions-free power, to help

satisfy rising electricity demand from data centers and

artificial intelligence.

Since then Constellation Energy ( CEG ) said it would reopen

the former Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in

Pennsylvania, widely known as the site of a partial meltdown in

1979 that chilled the nuclear industry. Constellation said in

June that the plant could restart in 2027, about a year ahead of

schedule.

Power company Entergy ( ETR ) closed Palisades in 2022,

after it operated for more than 50 years. It shut two weeks

ahead of schedule over a glitch with a control rod, despite a $6

billion federal program to save reactors suffering from rising

costs.

U.S. President Donald Trump signed executive orders in May

to fast-track new nuclear power licenses, and overhaul the

Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which issues them. The NRC last

month approved Holtec's request to load fuel into the reactor.

But the NRC said then there are still several licensing

actions under its review and requirements that need to be met

before Palisades can restart under the original operating

license, which expires in 2031.

Holtec is repairing steam generators at Palisades as the

standard procedure for maintaining the units was not followed

when the plant went into shutdown.

Holtec, which said in March it wanted to restart the plant

in the fourth quarter of 2025, did not immediately respond to a

request about whether that timing still stands.