NextEra Energy has secured a $1.9 billion loan from the US Department of Energy to restart the 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. The project aims to strengthen local grid reliability and create "thousands of direct and indirect jobs." With the rise of AI, data center companies have been scrambling to find energy. Google previously achieved its goal to offset power usage with renewable energy in 2018, but recently partnered with a natural gas plant in Texas. The restart of the mothballed facility marks a significant shift toward nuclear power for big tech. The Duane Arnold plant was shut down in 2020 after a severe storm damaged its cooling towers. NextEra Energy plans to restart energy production by 2029. The DOE has plans to restart three mothballed power plants to feed the grid and AI data centers, making this loan a clear step toward that goal.

A lot can happen in the meantime, though, and $1.9 billion is chump change in the nuclear power game.