US to restart three shuttered nuclear power plants

The United States is launching an unprecedented effort to restart three shuttered nuclear power plants to address surging electricity demand, driven significantly by the expansion of large-scale data centers. The Department of Energy is providing up to $4.4 billion in loans to revive the Palisades Power Plant in Michigan, the Crane Clean Energy Center at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, and the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa.

These facilities are expected to restore a combined 2.25 gigawatts of generating capacity, which is sufficient to power approximately 2 million homes and businesses. While these plants previously closed because their electricity was deemed too expensive, two of the sites have secured agreements with major technology companies willing to pay a premium for carbon-free power to fuel artificial intelligence and data center operations.

Nuclear engineering expert Todd Allen noted that restarting existing reactors is faster and more cost-effective than constructing new large-scale reactors. The Trump administration is also promoting nuclear energy to support manufacturing and AI, while directing billions toward upgrading currently operating plants to increase total output.