Google’s plan to revive the Duane Arnold Energy Center nuclear power plant in Iowa has received a significant financial boost with a $1.9 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, as reported by TechCrunch. The loan, the second of its kind, follows a $1 billion DOE loan to Constellation Energy for restarting a reactor at Three Mile Island, indicating the U.S. government’s support for revitalizing nuclear power to meet the growing electricity demands of tech companies, particularly for AI data centers ¹.

The refurbishment of the Duane Arnold plant, set to be completed by 2029, is expected to increase its capacity by an additional 14 megawatts, bringing the total to 615 megawatts. While only 50 megawatts will be allocated to the local power cooperative, NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum noted that this would cover 18% of Iowa’s demand growth since 2021. The decision to revive the plant comes amid a surge in electricity demand driven by the rise of AI and broader electrification efforts, with new data centers projected to nearly triple the sector’s electricity consumption by 2035 ¹.

Footnotes

1. De Chant, T. (2026, September 8). Google’s revived nuclear power plant gets $1.9B loan from US government. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2026/09/08/googles-revived-nuclear-power-plant-gets-1-9b-loan-from-us-government/ ↩ ↩²

This is a summary. Read the original at techcrunch.com.