The Energy Department has given nuclear-energy company Vistra a conditional loan commitment of up to $4.2 billion.

The commitment is meant to finance nuclear uprates and modernization across Vistra's nuclear fleet in Pennsylvania and Ohio, the DOE said Monday.

The project will preserve nearly 4 gigawats of baseload power and add 433 megawatts of new nuclear capacity. The investments will support about 3,000 jobs related to the project.

The company must satisfy certain technical, legal, environmental and financial conditions before the DOE enters into definitive financing documents and funds the loan.

Vistra's planned spending at Beaver Valley in Pennsylvania and Davis-Besse and Perry in Ohio will produce electricity from existing nuclear plants without requiring new transmission corridors or generation resources.

The government's commitment also includes an option finance potential future uprates at Vistra's Comanche Peak Nuclear Power Plant in Texas.