US Lends $1.9B to Restart Iowa Reactor
US Lends $1.9B to Restart Iowa Reactor
The News
The Trump administration is lending up to $1.9 billion to NextEra Energy to restart the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Linn County, Iowa — the state's only nuclear plant, shut down in 2020.
The Energy Department's Office of Energy Dominance Financing, formerly the Loan Programs Office, announced the closed loan on Tuesday.
The restart is pitched as power for the AI boom. Google said last year it would revive the plant, and is reportedly looking to build up to six data centers near the site, TechCrunch reported.
The Numbers
The administration says the restart puts 615 megawatts back on the grid — enough for nearly 500,000 homes, per the Washington Examiner; The Hill put the figure at more than 500,000 homes. NextEra will squeeze an extra 14 megawatts out of the plant during the refurbishment, according to TechCrunch. The work is expected to create nearly 1,500 construction jobs.
Timeline
The Duane Arnold nuclear plant opens in Linn County, Iowa.
The plant stops operating. The Washington Examiner reports it closed after one of its major customers ended its power purchase agreement; TechCrunch reports an intense rainstorm damaged the plant and NextEra chose to mothball it rather than repair it, with cheap natural gas making nuclear economically unappealing. It had been licensed to operate until 2034.
NextEra files a request with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to reopen the facility, saying it hoped to restore the operating license and restart as early as the end of 2028.
Google says it will bring the Iowa plant back from the dead, per TechCrunch.
The administration finalizes a $1 billion conditional loan for the Three Mile Island restart, now called the Crane Clean Energy Center.
The administration says it will issue $17.5 billion in loans to support 10 new large reactors.
The Energy Department closes the loan of up to $1.9 billion to NextEra for Duane Arnold.
Reactions
"President Trump called for a nuclear renaissance, and the Department of Energy is delivering," Office of Energy Dominance Financing Director Greg Beard said in a statement. "Duane Arnold is exactly the kind of investment that will help restore American nuclear leadership, strengthen our energy security, and deliver the affordable, reliable power Americans need to fuel our nation's future."
Deputy Energy Secretary James Danly said the restart would "drive down electricity costs." TechCrunch noted he did not explain how, and reported that NextEra CEO John Ketchum said on an earnings call last year that just 50 megawatts would be set aside for the local power cooperative — capacity TechCrunch calculated would cover 18% of Iowa's demand growth since 2021.
What's Next
NextEra has said it hoped to restart as early as the end of 2028; Danly put the restart in 2029.
Duane Arnold is the third shuttered plant the federal government has backed bringing back. Constellation Energy and Microsoft aim to return Three Mile Island to service as early as next year, and Holtec International began reloading nuclear fuel at Michigan's Palisades plant last week — a restart financed by a loan finalized under the Biden administration and funded out by Trump's Energy Department.
More
Restarting dead reactors has become the tech industry's fastest route to clean, firm power. Constellation's Clinton Clean Energy Center in Illinois, a 1.1-gigawatt plant that had been at risk of closing, found a customer in Meta, which is buying all of the plant's clean energy attributes to offset emissions elsewhere.
Demand is the driver. After decades of flat growth, AI and broader electrification have utilities scrambling for new generation, and new data centers are expected to nearly triple the sector's electricity demand by 2035, according to TechCrunch. It also reported the three restarts are the lowest-hanging fruit in the country — remaining candidates, such as San Onofre in California, have been closed longer and would take more work.
Poll
Should Washington keep lending billions to restart nuclear plants for AI data centers?
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