The Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo, Iowa. (Photo: NextEra Energy)
The Energy Department is providing NextEra Energy with up to $1.9 billion to restart Iowa’s Duane Arnold nuclear plant, adding a third major reactor revival to a broader U.S. push for more reliable electricity as power demand rises.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
America’s nuclear-energy revival is increasingly focused on bringing retired reactors back to life, with the Department of Energy closing a loan of up to $1.9 billion to help NextEra Energy restart Iowa’s Duane Arnold Energy Center.
The financing announced Sept. 8 represents the latest federal backing for one of three major U.S. nuclear restart projects, alongside the Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan and Pennsylvania’s Crane Clean Energy Center, formerly Three Mile Island Unit 1. A Just the News report detailed the growing role the projects are playing in the broader nuclear resurgence.
The Duane Arnold financing will support refurbishment of the 615-megawatt boiling-water reactor in Linn County, Iowa, which shut down in 2020 after approximately 45 years of operation. NextEra expects the facility to return to service by the first quarter of 2029, subject to Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval. DOE says the project could support approximately 1,500 jobs during refurbishment and more than 460 permanent jobs once operational.
The restart strategy offers a comparatively near-term route for expanding nuclear generation while the United States pursues more time-intensive advanced reactor projects. Several next-generation reactors have entered various stages of construction and development, but bringing entirely new technologies into widespread commercial service remains a longer process involving licensing, construction and new supply chains.
Nuclear power already supplies a substantial portion of American electricity. Its share rose from 2.4% in 1971 to approximately 20% by the early 1990s and has remained near that level for decades, according to industry generating statistics. The United States had 94 operating commercial reactors at 54 plants as of March 2026, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Only a small number of new large reactors have entered commercial service in recent decades. The most recent were Vogtle Units 3 and 4 in Georgia, which began commercial operation in 2023 and 2024. Their completion ended an 11-year expansion project at Plant Vogtle.
Public attitudes shift toward nuclear power
The renewed investment comes after decades in which major nuclear accidents helped shape public skepticism toward the technology.
The 1979 partial meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in what is now Ukraine and the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan became defining events in the public debate over reactor safety.
More recently, attitudes toward nuclear energy have grown more favorable as policymakers confront rising electricity demand, concerns over grid reliability and efforts to produce electricity without direct carbon dioxide emissions.
The shift crosses traditional political divisions. Congressional Democrats and Republicans have both expressed support for expanding nuclear power, even while disagreeing over aspects of the Trump administration’s broader energy policy, according to reporting on bipartisan congressional support.
An April Gallup poll found rising support for placing greater emphasis on nuclear power while enthusiasm for increasing reliance on several other energy sources had declined.
The 2026 National Nuclear Energy Public Opinion Survey, released in May, reported that 77% of respondents favored nuclear energy, the highest level recorded by the survey and up substantially from 49% in 1983.
A Pew Research Center survey also found support for expanding nuclear generation had grown among both Republicans and Democrats since 2020.
Debate nevertheless continues over cost, waste disposal, reactor safety and how nuclear compares with renewable generation. Critics also dispute arguments that increasing wind and solar generation necessarily raises consumer costs or weakens reliability, while supporters of nuclear point to its ability to provide large amounts of continuous electricity without depending on weather conditions. Comparisons of electricity prices among states pursuing different energy policies remain part of that broader debate.
Trump administration expands nuclear policy
President Donald Trump has made nuclear expansion a major component of his energy agenda.
In May 2025, Trump signed four nuclear-related executive orders addressing reactor testing, Nuclear Regulatory Commission procedures, deployment of advanced nuclear technology and the domestic nuclear industrial and fuel base.
The orders directed federal agencies to accelerate reactor testing and licensing, expand domestic uranium conversion and enrichment, pursue additional reactor construction and consider ways to increase generation from the existing nuclear fleet.
Those policies have been paired with direct financial assistance for reactor restarts.
Duane Arnold operated for decades before closing after multiple economic pressures converged. The reactor sustained damage during an August 2020 derecho, while its earlier decision to close was also influenced by the loss of favorable power-purchase arrangements and competition from inexpensive natural gas and other generation.
The economics have since changed as data centers, artificial intelligence infrastructure and broader electrification push power consumption higher.
U.S. electricity demand is expected to reach record levels in 2026 and again in 2027, with data-center growth among the major drivers, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Google entered into an agreement with NextEra in October 2025 to purchase electricity from the revived Duane Arnold facility. Reuters reported that the agreement covers the plant’s 615-megawatt output for 25 years.
With that customer in place and the DOE loan now closed, NextEra is moving toward a restart targeted for early 2029.
Three shuttered plants moving toward revival
Duane Arnold joins two other reactors that had been slated for permanent closure or decommissioning but are now being prepared to generate electricity again.
The 805-megawatt Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan stopped operating in May 2022 after its power purchase agreement expired amid difficult market economics.
Holtec began seeking regulatory approval for a restart in late 2023, and the Biden administration finalized an up to $1.52 billion loan guarantee in September 2024 to support the project.
The plant has continued advancing through the regulatory process, and Holtec recently began loading nuclear fuel into the reactor vessel as it works through testing, inspections and remaining NRC requirements.
If Palisades successfully returns to commercial operation, it would become the first U.S. commercial nuclear plant to return to service after entering decommissioning. DOE continues making disbursements under the loan supporting the project.
Pennsylvania’s Crane Clean Energy Center represents the other major restart.
The facility, formerly known as Three Mile Island Unit 1, stopped operating in 2019. Microsoft later signed a 20-year power-purchase agreement with Constellation Energy intended in part to supply electricity for the company’s growing data-center operations.
DOE closed a $1 billion loan in November 2025 to help finance the Crane restart, which is expected to return approximately 835 megawatts of generating capacity to the grid, pending regulatory approvals.
Together, the three projects illustrate a major shift in the economics of nuclear facilities once considered uneconomic to operate.
Rather than relying exclusively on construction of new plants, utilities and technology companies are increasingly examining whether existing reactors can be refurbished and returned to service faster than entirely new generating facilities can be built.
Environmental opposition remains
The nuclear resurgence has not eliminated opposition.
The Sierra Club has organized against the Duane Arnold restart, arguing that returning the aging reactor to service raises safety concerns and that renewable energy alternatives would be less expensive.
The environmental organization has also opposed the Palisades restart and efforts to revive Three Mile Island Unit 1.
Michigan environmental organizations additionally pursued litigation seeking to stop Palisades from returning to service. After losing in state court, opponents appealed through the federal system.
Supporters counter that existing nuclear plants provide around-the-clock electricity with no direct carbon emissions during generation and can help meet rapidly increasing demand without waiting for construction of entirely new large power stations.
The federal government is simultaneously pursuing advanced reactors and small modular designs. EIA reported this year that several companies are developing SMRs and microreactors, while DOE has set targets that include power uprates at existing plants and construction of additional large reactors.
For the immediate future, however, the shuttered plants may provide some of the fastest opportunities to add substantial nuclear capacity back to the grid.
Palisades is approaching the final stages of its attempted return, Crane is targeted for restart after federal financing and a long-term Microsoft agreement, and Duane Arnold now has both a major technology-company customer and up to $1.9 billion in federal financing.
If the projects clear their remaining regulatory and technical hurdles, three reactors once headed permanently out of the nation’s power portfolio could again be producing electricity before many next-generation nuclear projects reach commercial operation — extending a nuclear comeback that is increasingly being driven not only by energy policy, but by the rapidly growing electricity requirements of America’s digital economy.
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