U.S. is reviving shuttered nuclear plants to meet growing electricity demand and to power data centers

The federal government is supporting efforts to restart three nuclear plants that closed before their operating licenses expired, including the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo, Iowa, a plant in Michigan and the Crane Clean Energy Center at the former Three Mile Island site in Pennsylvania. The facilities are being considered as sources of additional electricity amid rapidly increasing demand from large data centers.

The plants were previously shut down largely because their power was considered too expensive. The administration is offering as much as $4.4 billion in loans to support the restarts, which would be unprecedented if any reactor resumes commercial generation after entering the decommissioning process. Constellation operates the Pennsylvania facility, and two of the plants have agreements to provide power to data centers.