US regulator approves $1.9 billion loan to spin up Iowa's dead nuclear reactor for Google

NextEra Energy has secured a $1.9 billion loan from the US Department of Energy (DOE) to restart its Duane Arnold Energy Center, a 615-megawatt nuclear facility in Linn County, Iowa. Power from the plant will be purchased by Google for its AI data centers but also strengthen local grid reliability and create "thousands of direct and indirect jobs," NextEra said last year.

With the rise of AI, Google and other data center companies have been scrambling to find energy to power them. Google made a pledge to offset its power usage with green and renewable energy sources and achieved that goal in 2018. However, the company recently partnered with a natural gas power plant to provide energy for one of its data centers in Texas. Other data centers run by Tesla, Meta and others have also used dirty grid energy or even obtained their own natural gas power generators. 

That makes Google's nuclear deal a potential game-changer, giving the company relatively clean power when it comes to emissions (though not nuclear waste). The DOE has plans to restart three mothballed power plants, both to feed the grid and AI data centers, so the new loan is a clear step toward that goal. 

The Duane Arnold Energy Center had an interesting final chapter. A tropical storm that hit the state on August 10, 2020 with gusts up to 140 mph knocked down the cooling towers, bringing an end to the plant which was due to be decommissioned anyway. Now, the demand for data center energy has brought it back from the dead, with the operator planning to restart energy production by 2029. A lot can happen in the meantime, though, and $1.9 billion is chump change in the nuclear power game.