US Government Backs Google’s Iowa Nuclear Revival with $1.9B Loan

The Duane Arnold plant, which has remained dormant since a 2020 storm, is slated for a 2029 restart. While NextEra CEO John Ketchum confirmed that 50 megawatts will support the local power cooperative, the bulk of the facility’s 615-megawatt capacity is intended to fuel Google’s planned data center cluster nearby. The project marks the second major government-backed nuclear restart, following a $1 billion loan granted to Constellation Energy for the Three Mile Island reactor.

Energy demand projections indicate that the utility sector must scramble to meet needs, with data centers expected to nearly triple their electricity consumption by 2035. Once deemed economically unviable due to cheap natural gas, older nuclear sites have become the tech industry's preferred solution for securing firm, clean power. Beyond Iowa, companies like Microsoft and Meta are aggressively securing similar deals to offset the massive energy footprints of their AI operations. While the Duane Arnold project remains a smaller-scale effort, it underscores a national shift toward reclaiming aging infrastructure to sustain the rapid growth of artificial intelligence.