The U.S. Department of Energy has closed a loan of up to $1.9 billion to restart NextEra Energy’s Duane Arnold Energy Center in Linn County, Iowa, the nuclear plant the company shut down in 2020. The financing is meant to bring the 615-megawatt plant back online in the first quarter of 2029, with federal officials projecting it will eventually power roughly 500,000 homes. Most of that power, though, is headed somewhere other than nearby households: Google is reportedly eyeing the site for as many as six new data centers.
Getting the money was the easier part. Duane Arnold has sat shuttered since August 2020, and reviving it now depends on a separate, still-unfinished regulatory process that the federal loan cannot shortcut.
The loan closed; the restart still needs NRC sign-off
The Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Dominance Financing, the renamed Loan Programs Office, describes the deal as a completed transaction. “Financial close of a loan of up to $1.9 billion” is the exact language in the agency’s Sept. 8 announcement, meaning the money is committed and available to draw down, not a preliminary offer that could still fall through. Deputy Secretary of Energy James P. Danly framed the closing as part of a broader push, saying in the release that returning 615 megawatts of reliable baseload generation would drive down electricity costs while supporting thousands of American jobs, including nearly 1,500 construction positions and more than 450 permanent operating jobs once the plant restarts.
Actually generating power again is a separate matter still working through the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which set up a dedicated Restart Panel after NextEra applied in early 2025 to reinstate the plant’s operating license, its emergency plan and its security plan. The NRC issued a draft environmental assessment in July 2026 and closed the public comment period on Sept. 2, six days before the loan closed, but has not yet issued a final restart decision. Duane Arnold’s underlying operating license does not expire until February 2034, which is the legal window NextEra is racing to use.
Google’s reported data-center plans dwarf the local co-op’s share
Google is reportedly looking to build up to six data centers near the Duane Arnold site, according to TechCrunch’s reporting on the loan closing, which frames the restarted reactor as effectively purpose-built to feed the company’s AI computing needs in the region. Of the plant’s full 615-megawatt capacity, just 50 megawatts have been set aside for the local power cooperative that once relied on Duane Arnold before its 2020 shutdown, TechCrunch reported, with NextEra chief executive John Ketchum discussing that allocation on an earnings call without detailing how the rest would be divided.
Industry coverage of the closing, including a report from MGrid, named that cooperative as Central Iowa Power Cooperative and said Google has agreed to a 25-year deal for the plant’s output as a round-the-clock, carbon-free supply for its Iowa cloud and AI operations, with the cooperative buying the remaining capacity on the same terms. NextEra’s own announcement of the loan closing never mentions Google by name, and MGrid’s report noted that the hyperscaler’s commitment is what made the restart financeable in the first place. Central Iowa Power Cooperative and Corn Belt Power Cooperative together hold the 30% of Duane Arnold that NextEra does not already own, a stake NextEra is separately moving to acquire in full.
A tiny ratepayer share next to a much larger AI claim
Fifty megawatts is a fraction of what Duane Arnold is expected to produce once it restarts, and TechCrunch’s analysis put that carve-out at roughly enough to cover 18% of Iowa’s electricity demand growth since 2021. Everything above that share is available for other buyers, and Google’s reported 25-year commitment puts the company first in line for most of it.
The arrangement mirrors a broader pattern around restarted and life-extended nuclear plants in the United States, where AI companies have moved to lock down large blocks of reliable, carbon-free power years before new reactors or grid expansions can come online. The Office of Energy Dominance Financing describes its own mission as securing American energy assets and lowering costs for all Americans, a framing that sits awkwardly next to a restart whose largest buyer is reportedly a single technology company rather than the households the office’s own language invokes.
EDF Director Gregory A. Beard also weighed in on the closing, describing Duane Arnold as exactly the kind of investment that helps restore American nuclear leadership, strengthens the country’s energy security and delivers affordable, reliable power for the future, according to the DOE release. Left unaddressed in that statement, and in the release generally, is how a plant sending most of its output to data centers translates into the affordable power Beard describes for households near the site.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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