U.S. Nuclear Power Revival Accelerates: Google Signs 25-Year Power Purchase Agreement with NextEra; Nuclear Plant Shut Down for Five Years "Brought Back to Life"

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The clean energy demand from tech giants for artificial intelligence data centers is driving a wave of nuclear power plant restarts in the United States. Google has reached an agreement with NextEra, the largest renewable energy company in the U.S., to restart an Iowa nuclear power plant that has been closed for five years.

According to the Financial Times, NextEra will lead the restart project of the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa. Google has signed a 25-year power purchase agreement to procure electricity from the plant. The plant, with an installed capacity of 615 megawatts, is expected to cost over $1.6 billion to restart and plans to begin supplying power in 2029.

According to NextEra’s plan, Duane Arnold will become the third U.S. nuclear power plant to launch a restart program, after Palisades and Three Mile Island.

Ruth Porat, President and Chief Investment Officer of Google parent company Alphabet, said this cooperation "sets an example for the nationwide investment needed to build energy capacity and provide reliable clean power, while ensuring price affordability and creating jobs."

Google said that in addition to the restart project, it will also explore opportunities with NextEra to deploy new nuclear power capacity in the U.S., to address the surge in electricity demand brought by AI adoption.

Dual Pressures Behind the Restart

Previously, Microsoft reached a similar agreement with Constellation Energy last year to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. Michigan’s Palisades nuclear plant is expected to become the first fully decommissioned U.S. nuclear power plant to resume operations later this year.

All these projects point to the same driving force: the explosive power demand of AI infrastructure and the dual pressures of carbon neutrality goals.

Market analysts believe that restarting idle nuclear plants is more cost-effective and faster than building new facilities from scratch. This explains why tech companies are choosing to revive old reactors with nuclear power firms, rather than waiting for next-generation nuclear technology to be commercialized.

However, critics warn that efforts to restart retired nuclear plants should not be rushed and must comply with strict regulatory standards.

Edwin Lyman, a physicist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that the Duane Arnold restart should be carried out "with extreme caution," especially given the plant's prior storm damage.

Lyman pointed out that this aging reactor has the same design as the one that melted down at Fukushima in 2011 and was shut down after being hit by the Derecho storm in August 2020, which destroyed its cooling tower and caused severe damage. He said that until "there is a realistic cost estimate for rebuilding the plant and restoring it to a safe state," no one really knows if the reactor can generate reasonably priced electricity.

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