Google and NextEra Energy announced two deals Monday to boost nuclear power, including a plan for the technology giant to buy power from Iowa’s only reactor after it restarts.
The 25-year agreement for power produced at the Duane Arnold Energy Center underscores how the artificial intelligence boom is bolstering the U.S. nuclear industry, a priority of the Trump administration. Under the plan, Google agreed to purchase electricity from the plant near Cedar Rapids to advance its build-out of data centers in the state.
“Restarting Duane Arnold marks an important milestone for NextEra Energy,” said John Ketchum, chair and CEO of NextEra Energy, the nation’s largest power company. “Our partnership with Google not only brings nuclear energy back to Iowa — it also accelerates the development of next-generation nuclear technology.”
The companies also signed a separate agreement to “explore the development” of nuclear power in other parts of the U.S.
The Duane Arnold plant shut down in 2020 after damage from a storm, but NextEra has been pushing for its revival, including through a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in July to reclaim interconnection rights. The company is targeting the first quarter of 2029 to bring the 615-megawatt facility online, pending regulatory approvals.
Central Iowa Power Cooperative — one of the plant’s current minority owners — plans to purchase the plant’s remaining power on the same terms as Google, the companies said. NextEra said agreements are in place to increase its ownership to 100 percent of Duane Arnold. CIPCO and Corn Belt Power Cooperative currently have a combined 30 percent interest in the facility.
The move comes as technology companies around the country are forging deals to find power to fuel the data center boom, which is driving a spike in electricity demand after years of flat growth.
Shon Hiatt, an associate professor at the University of Southern California’s business school, said he expected more nuclear, hydropower and geothermal deals through 2026, considering that the surging electricity demand continues to outstrip projected supply.
Those resources can supply power that runs around the clock and also have low emissions, a dual quality that makes them attractive to many technology giants.
“Data center companies require baseload power that runs 99.995% of the time (on all but 1 hour a year),” Hiatt said in an email. “At the same time, hyperscalers have sustainability targets that they still want to meet.”
The nuclear industry has been a beneficiary of the AI build-out through plans such as Constellation Energy’s effort to restart the Three Mile Island reactor in Pennsylvania to power Microsoft data centers. Google has been part of other 2025 agreements, including one in August for the Tennessee Valley Authority to buy electricity from a planned reactor to power the technology company’s AI infrastructure.
Restarted plants are viewed as a way to bring nuclear online more quickly than building a plant from scratch. The last large nuclear reactor to be built in the U.S. was a unit of Plant Vogtle in Georgia, after years of cost overruns.
The Trump administration has been pushing for nuclear in various ways, including by disbursing funds from a Biden-era $1.5 billion loan to restart the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan. If that plant comes online, it would be the first shuttered U.S. nuclear plant to restart.
Google also is looking to other power sources to simultaneously meet data center demands and its low-carbon targets, including a plan this month to buy power from a gas plant in Illinois that aims to capture 90 percent of its carbon emissions. NextEra said it has almost 3 gigawatts of power deals with Google across the U.S.
The Duane Arnold partnership “serves as a model for the investments needed across the country to build energy capacity,” said Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google.
Google announced in May it planned to invest $7 billion to build out AI infrastructure in Iowa.
NextEra has filed a licensing change request with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Duane Arnold and previously estimated it could spend up to $100 million this year to bring the plant online. On Monday, the company said it is “working proactively” with the NRC.
In 2010, the NRC extended the plant’s license to 2034. The reactor operated for 45 years until the 2020 closure.
The plant’s restart has won support from Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) and other local politicians, but also has spurred backlash from environmentalists concerned about the age of Duane Arnold and nuclear waste. According to the companies, the plant could give a $340 million boost to the state’s economy.
