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By MARC LEVY

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The U.S. Department of Energy said Tuesday that it will loan $1 billion to help finance the restart of the nuclear power plant on Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island that is under contract to supply power to data centers for tech giant Microsoft.

The loan is in line with the priorities of President Donald Trump’s administration, including bolstering nuclear power and artificial intelligence.

For Constellation Energy, which owns Three Mile Island’s lone functioning nuclear power reactor, the federal loan will lower its financing cost to get the mothballed plant up and running again. The 835-megawatt reactor can power the equivalent of approximately 800,000 homes, the Department of Energy said.

The reactor had been out of operation for five years when Constellation Energy announced last year that it would spend $1.6 billion to restart it under a 20-year agreement with Microsoft to buy the power for its data centers.

Constellation Energy renamed the functioning unit the Crane Clean Energy Center as it works to restore equipment including the turbine, generator, main power transformer and cooling and control systems. It hopes to bring the plant back online in 2027. read more

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER and KEN SWEET

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve’s top banking regulator on Tuesday released new guidelines for the agency’s supervision of the financial system, earning praise from industry trade groups and criticism from her predecessor.

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In a set of sweeping changes, the principles call for bank examiners to focus on material financial risks and to “not become distracted from this priority by devoting excessive attention to processes, procedures, and documentation.” The guidelines are set out in a memo originally distributed to Fed employees Oct. 29 but released Tuesday. read more

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — What was once seen as a near-certain cut in interest rates next month now looks more like a coin flip as Federal Reserve officials sharply disagree over the economy’s health and whether stubborn inflation or weak hiring represent a bigger threat.

In several speeches in the past week, some policymakers have registered greater concern over persistent inflation in an echo of the “affordability” concerns that played a large role in elections earlier this month.

At the same time, another camp is much more concerned about meager hiring and the threat that the “low-hire, low-fire“ job market could worsen into one where layoffs become more widespread.

The turmoil on the Fed’s 19-member interest-rate setting committee reflects a deeply uncertain economic outlook brought about by multiple factors, including tariffs, artificial intelligence, and changes in immigration and tax policies.

“It’s reflective of a ton of uncertainty,” said Luke Tilley, chief economist at M&T Bank. “It’s not surprising at all that there’s a wide divergence of opinions.” read more

National grocery retailer Kroger Co. announced plans Tuesday to close three eCommerce fulfillment centers, including one in Groveland, a move that will lead to the loss of about 1,400 Florida jobs.

The closing of the Groveland fulfillment center will impact about 935 employees at that facility and nearly 500 others, many of them delivery drivers, stationed in Jacksonville, Rockledge and Tampa, according to notices the company filed with the Florida Department of Commerce.

“This is an especially difficult time for employees to hear this news, and our hearts go out to those affected,” the City of Groveland wrote in a statement.

The facility is expected to close sometime in January 2026, according to the city. The company’s notices said the workers’ employment will end on Feb. 1.

The Groveland facility, similar to other Kroger fulfillment centers across the country, uses more than 1,000 product retrieval robots that allow customers to order on Kroger.com, or the Kroger app, and have groceries delivered in temperature-controlled vans. read more

CAPE CANAVERAL — There are tall, pointy metal tubes aplenty at Port Canaveral, but one is extra large.

The first-ever recovered first-stage booster for Blue Origin’s massive New Glenn rocket arrived to the port Tuesday morning five days after its launch from nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Launch Complex 36 on the NG-2 mission for NASA.

Its girth stuck out like a massive, freestanding cigarette with a still-white paint job with a gold top standing tall on the port’s skyline littered with cranes, cargo ships and even a pair of competitor SpaceX’s Falcon 9 boosters.

In comparison, the Falcon 9 boosters, which had each traveled to space several times, had the black carbon-scoring soot from multiple reentries.

pic.twitter.com/btsz0Sla4B

— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) November 18, 2025

Blue Origin’s booster, named “Never Tell Me The Odds” in reference to dialogue spoken by Han Solo to C-3PO before successfully navigating an asteroid field in “The Empire Strikes Back,” managed to stick the landing on Blue Origin’s recovery vessel Jacklyn, named after company founder Jeff Bezos’ mother, which had been located about 375 miles downrange. read more