By Rajwa Quasim
The U.S. Department of Energy has finalized a loan of up to $1.9 billion to NextEra Energy to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa, a nuclear power plant that Google said last October it would help bring back online. The plant has been shut down since 2020.
The nuclear power plant was shut down after being damaged by a rainstorm. NextEra chose to close the plant rather than repair it at a time when cheap natural gas was flooding the market, making the repairs economically unappealing.
The project is expected to return the facility to operation in 2029, pending approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. According to NextEra, the plant will be able to generate about 615 megawatts of electricity, enough to power nearly 500,000 homes.
Google has emerged as an important customer for the project and has agreed to buy a majority of its power for 25 years. The company is also reportedly considering building six data centers near the Duane Arnold Energy Center as it seeks to make nuclear power an important source of electricity for expanding its AI infrastructure.
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The deal reflects how quickly electricity demand is shifting. After years of relatively steady demand, the growth of AI and the broader electrification of the economy are driving the need for more power. As electricity demand from data centers could nearly triple by 2035, nuclear power plants are becoming an attractive option as a clean and reliable source of electricity.
Deputy Secretary of Energy James Danly said the restart of the Iowa plant will help drive down electricity costs. During an earnings call, NextEra CEO John Ketchum said 50 megawatts would be reserved for a local power cooperative, which would cover about 18% of Iowa’s electricity demand growth since 2021. Most of the remaining power is expected to serve Google.
Like NextEra’s plan to restart the nuclear facility, several other nuclear plants at risk of closure or already shuttered have attracted support from the technology sector.
Last year, the Trump administration announced that it would provide Constellation Energy with a $1 billion loan to restart a nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania. The reactor has been shut down since 2019. Microsoft has agreed to buy all the electricity generated by the 835-megawatt plant for 20 years. The expected refurbishment cost is $1.6 billion, and the plant is expected to resume operations in 2028.
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Meanwhile, Meta has agreed to purchase clean-energy credits from Constellation’s 1.1-gigawatt Clinton Clean Energy Center in Illinois, a nuclear plant that had been at risk of closure. Electricity from the Illinois plant will flow to the local grid, while Meta will use the associated certificates to offset some of its emissions elsewhere. The agreement will provide financial support to help keep the plant operating.
The Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan received about $1.5 billion in financing under former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Trump has pushed to expand nuclear power in the United States. He has also signed an executive order calling for construction to begin on 10 large nuclear reactors by 2030 and has called for government funding to help restart shuttered nuclear plants.