The U.S. Department of Energy said Tuesday it closed a loan of up to $1.9 billion to NextEra Energy to help finance the restart of the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa, which shut down six years ago. The company aims to begin producing electricity from the 615-megawatt power plant by early 2029. The loan was finalized by the department's renamed Office of Energy Dominance Financing, known as the Loan Programs Office under past administrations.
Duane Arnold would be the third shuttered U.S. nuclear plant to attempt a comeback with federal support. The office previously closed a $1 billion loan to restart Constellation Energy's Crane nuclear plant in Pennsylvania and a $1.52 billion loan to revive Holtec International's Palisades plant in Michigan. All three plants shut down in recent years owing to high repair and relicensing costs, as well as competition from natural gas and low-cost renewable energy. Holtec's Palisades plant is poised to become America's first nuclear restart as early as this year, though it has missed its original target of early 2026 and faces a contractual deadline of March 2027.
The restart effort reflects surging U.S. electricity demand, driven in large part by the data center boom. NextEra Energy signed a 25-year agreement with Google last fall to supply electricity from Duane Arnold, which will help power the tech giant's growing cloud-computing and AI infrastructure in Iowa. The reboot is expected to supply enough power for nearly 500,000 homes and create nearly 1,500 construction jobs, while supporting over 400 permanent positions during operations. Iowa's Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds said the restart will meet growing energy demand while providing hundreds of good-paying jobs.
What remains unknown is whether NextEra Energy can secure licensing approvals from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to return Iowa's only nuclear plant to service. The company is still working through that process. The broader restart effort also carries uncertainty: no shuttered U.S. nuclear plant has ever been brought back online before, and Holtec's first-of-a-kind Palisades project has already hit several snags. If Palisades succeeds, it could help pave the path for reviving other shuttered reactors, but that outcome is not yet assured.