The United States is pursuing an unusual wave of nuclear restarts and upgrades to meet rising electricity demand, including from large data centers that power cloud computing and artificial intelligence.
The Energy Department has moved lending and conditional financing into the sector, including support aimed at restarting Iowa’s Duane Arnold plant and a multi-billion-dollar package tied to Vistra nuclear uprates and modernization in Pennsylvania and Ohio, according to department announcements and AP reporting.
Tech firms and utilities say baseload nuclear can firm up grids strained by AI campus load growth. Critics still press on cost overruns, waste and timeline risk, but federal officials frame the push as energy security and lower long-term power costs.
The debate echoes in states like Arizona, where dozens of data centers are built or planned and regulators are wrestling with who pays for new generation and transmission.
Sources: AP News, U.S. Department of Energy. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Trougnouf / CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
