The U.S. Department of Energy closed a loan of up to $1.9 billion on Sept. 8 to help finance developer NextEra Energy’s planned restart of the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa, adding to federal support for a nuclear recommissioning effort already underway.
DOE’s Office of Energy Domain Financing announced the loan as a combined conditional commitment and financial close. NextEra said it aims to restart the 615 MW plant in Linn County, near Cedar Rapids, no later than the first quarter of 2029, pending regulatory approvals.
The federal funding consideration had been in the works for months.
An April 3 DOE environmental review, referring to earlier correspondence dated Feb. 26, said the agency was considering financial assistance for work that included site preparation, facility upgrades, equipment maintenance and upgrades, and fueling.
What the loan changes economically is not yet clear. NextEra had signaled in late 2024 an intention to halt the shutdown, formally announcing the plant’s restart in October 2025 with a 25-year Google power purchase agreement that the developer said “allows for the investment to restart the plant and covers the costs of power production.”
Google plans to use the power for its Iowa cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
The project also had a major construction program underway before today’s closing. An October 2025 economic analysis based on detailed cost estimates provided by NextEra projected at least $1 billion in direct construction investment.
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The study described engineering, design and installation expenditure, along with the renovation of existing piping, wiring and equipment. Duane Arnold went out of business in 2020.
ENR has tracked Duane Arnold along with the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan and the Crane Clean Energy facility in Pennsylvania, formerly the intact unit at the Three Mile Island plant, as three shuttered US facilities return to service. The DOE awarded Holtec International a $1.52 billion loan for the Michigan plant in 2024 and closed on a $1 billion loan last November for Constellation Energy’s crane restart.
The administration “is pursuing a comprehensive nuclear strategy, restarting existing reactors, increasing the output of our nuclear fleet and accelerating new construction,” Deputy Energy Secretary James Danly said in a statement.
A May 2025 executive order directed the DOE loan office to prioritize funding to restart shuttered nuclear power plants, among other nuclear energy investments.
Reviews by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission remain ongoing. The commission said in March that NextEra had submitted several license actions needed to resume power operations and expected final decisions by January 2028, subject to changes in the scope of the review or requests for additional information.
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The work is delaying the restart of the Palisades nuclear site until possibly late March
The DOE and NextEra did not immediately respond to ENR’s questions about the timing of the funding announcement and whether the federal loan is necessary for Duane Arnold to restart or if it primarily reduces funding costs for the NextEra project.
