The Bell Bend Nuclear Power Plant Project is a prospective nuclear power plant which may be built on the Bell Bend of the Susquehanna River in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, near the Susquehanna Steam Electric Station.

On October 10, 2008, Pennsylvania Power and Light (PPL) filed an application for a Combined Construction and Operating License (COL) for the plant with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) by the end of 2008 — in time for the potential plant to qualify for production tax credits under the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005.^[2] NRC review of the 10,000-page COLA is expected to take three to four years.

Bell Bend would use the 1,600 MWe European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) designed by the French company AREVA. Plants using this technology now are under construction in Finland, France, and China. The plant would be built by PPL and UniStar Nuclear Energy, a joint enterprise of Constellation Energy and French energy giant EDF.

PPL spokesman Dan McCarthy said the plant would cost about $10 billion to develop, and seven to eight years to construct — beginning operation in 2016 or 2017. A later estimate gives costs as $13–15 billion and an operational starting date of 2018-20. PPL filed an initial application for federal loan guarantees by the September 29, 2008 deadline. PPL intends to submit the second part of the application by the December 19 deadline. PPL Chief Operating Officer William Spence said, "Without federal loan guarantees, companies like PPL will not be able to secure financing for the substantial cost of building new, advanced-design nuclear energy plants that will help this country achieve challenging limits on carbon dioxide emissions, as well as energy independence".