The owner of the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant is weighing whether to bring the facility back online as more power hungry data centers are coming to eastern Iowa.
The Duane Arnold Energy Center in Palo shut down four years ago with its owner, NextEra, saying it wasn’t economically viable anymore.
However, the Des Moines Register reports, the plant could be brought back online if large tech companies running data centers choose to buy power from it.
Major tech companies like Facebook, Microsoft, Apple and Google have built data centers in the state. Those data centers have high energy needs.
Earlier this year, Cedar Rapids city leaders announced a Google data center was coming to southwest Cedar Rapids.
Then on Tuesday, the Cedar Rapids city council voted to offer tax incentives to start construction on a second major data center that’s also planned for southwest Cedar Rapids.
However, the Des Moines Register reports NextEra doesn’t have formal plans to bring the facility back online yet, but they are evaluating the opportunity.
It’s unclear how much work would be needed before reopening the Duane Arnold Energy Center.
NextEra would need to rebuild the plant’s cooling towers.
Source: kcrg.com