Google's Revived Nuclear Power Plant Gets $1.9 Billion Loan From US Government

The U.S. Department of Energy has approved a $1.9 billion loan to NextEra Energy for the purpose of restarting Iowa's Duane Arnold nuclear plant, a facility that Google has endorsed as a power source for its expanding AI infrastructure. This substantial loan represents the second such financial aid, indicating that the Trump administration views nuclear power as a crucial energy source for tech companies looking to fuel their AI data centers.

According to TechCrunch, Deputy Secretary of Energy James Danly stated that the plant's restart in 2029 will help lower electricity costs, though the exact method of cost reduction was not disclosed. The Duane Arnold Energy Center, which had not been operational since 2020 due to damage from a severe rainstorm, will allocate just 50 megawatts for the local power cooperative, with NextEra CEO John Ketchum revealing this capacity during an earnings call last year.

This allocation would be sufficient to meet 18% of Iowa's power demand growth since 2021, the year prior to the release of ChatGPT. Google is reportedly planning to construct up to six data centers near the Duane Arnold Energy Center, which was mothballed after cheap natural gas flooded the market, rendering nuclear power economically unattractive.

However, the situation has changed significantly in the last six years. With AI demand causing a surge in electricity consumption and broader electrification of the economy, utilities and power providers are now urgently seeking new generating sources of electricity. It is projected that new data centers will triple the sector's electricity demand by 2035.