The potential reopening of a nuclear plant in eastern Iowa is an early signal of the Trump administration's push to fast-track nuclear development. As tech companies move to build more energy-intensive data centers, the administration wants to bring more power to the grid.
Nuclear power offers some advantages for developers, such as high power density and a low-carbon footprint, but it also raises some concerns related to potential public health impacts.
NextEra Energy Resources and tech giant Google are working together to bring the 615-megawatt Duane Arnold Energy Center near Cedar Rapids online again by early 2029. The nuclear plant was shut down early after the August 2020 derecho damaged two sets of its cooling towers, marking an end to nearly a half-century of operations.
“This project reflects a major investment in Iowa’s clean energy future and a transformational economic opportunity for the greater Cedar Rapids region, fueling our growth and continued success,” Cedar Rapids Mayor Tiffany O’Donnell said at an Iowa Utilities Commission meeting in November.
For the state, the restart could have a $9 billion economic impact and add 400 permanent jobs.
The two companies announced a power purchase agreement last year, in which Google provided the initial investment for NextEra to apply for an extension of its existing license with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). In return, Duane Arnold would give over 90% of its power supply to Google, pending NRC approval. Google is exploring building a data center directly south of Duane Arnold on land that could be annexed into the city of Palo.
NextEra has said reopening the nuclear plant would have no impact on customers’ utility rates.
“I think [the restart] is meaningful, beyond the power that’s being generated and the economic impact,” said Bill Orlove, a spokesperson for NextEra Energy. “It’s bringing something that was there back and coming back to being a fabric of the community.”
At several public meetings held by local and federal agencies related to the potential restart over the past year, former employees of Duane Arnold spoke in favor of the project.
“[Working at the plant] was a complete pride factor. My kids were proud. Everybody was proud of the fact that they did a good job,” Frank Van Etten, who worked at the plant for 37 years, said at an NRC public meeting in mid-April. “Let’s hope that this continues to be part of the plan.”
Trump administration makes changes to federal nuclear regulatory process
Before it can restart Duane Arnold, NextEra Energy is seeking approval from several state and federal regulators.
The NRC is charged with issuing a host of licensing actions that are currently under review. That “bundle,” as it is called by agency staffers, is slated to be issued on or before January 2028 — roughly one year ahead of NextEra Energy's anticipated restart in early 2029.
“The issuance of the bundle would allow the plant to transition from a decommissioning status to an operational status,” said NRC Project Manager Justin Poole at a public meeting held by the agency in Cedar Rapids in mid-April.
In May 2025, President Donald Trump announced a series of executive orders aimed at deploying nuclear reactor technologies. The U.S. Department of Energy later issued a release touting the “new life for retired nuclear plants" that it said resulted from the Trump administration’s initiatives in nuclear, specifically noting the potential restart of the Palisades plant in Michigan and Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania.
Then, during his State of the Union speech in February, Trump announced that his administration had facilitated a Ratepayer Protection Pledge with leading tech companies aimed at keeping electricity costs low during the nationwide data center buildout.
“We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs. They can build their own power plants as part of their factory so that no one’s prices will go up and, in many cases, prices of electricity will go down for the community,” Trump said.
That includes “behind-the-meter" electricity, in which developers are insulated from grid congestion by building power stations on the same site as their data centers.
It’s not clear whether changes in federal policy will have an impact on the NRC’s licensing approval process for Duane Arnold. But April Nguyen, who leads the NRC’s team that inspects the plant, said one executive order aiming to “reduce unnecessary burdens” within the agency will not change anything related to the inspection process.
“Fundamentally, we want to make sure that all the systems and components that prevent accidents from happening and those barriers between the plant and the public are still intact,” Nguyen said.
She said that includes the NRC’s inspections of the piping, structural integrity of the reactor vessel and radiation protection of the individuals on and off site.
Nuclear has “high power density” compared to other energy sources
For companies like Google, which are being asked to add more power to the grid, nuclear is a valuable investment because of its high power density. It can generate a large amount of electricity in a relatively small area.
“Solar and wind tend to have low power densities, so we’re talking 2-6 watts per meter squared, whereas nuclear is at 240 watts per meter squared, so many orders of magnitude higher,” said Tori Forbes, a professor studying radiochemistry and nuclear materials at the University of Iowa's Department of Chemistry.
Data from the Iowa Utilities Commission in 2024 shows wind energy makes up the largest share of Iowa's energy portfolio, at over 60%. Solar is a much smaller share, at less than 1%. But that number is growing.
Forbes said investing in nuclear power makes sense from a real estate perspective.
“The Duane Arnold plant is available, and if we [Google] invest in it, we can again put that amount of energy back into the grid, compared to figuring out how you’re going to find the land to then convert to wind energy,” Forbes said.
But she said certain challenges with refurbishing a plant like Duane Arnold, which was built in the early 1970s, mean new innovations in nuclear power generation could take the place of restarting power plants in the future. There is potential to build small modular reactors, which are a fraction of the size of conventional nuclear reactors and produce a fraction of the output.
“I think some of these newer reactors are offering new and innovative ways to think about developing this technology further," Forbes said. "The resurgence that I’m seeing is a lot of push into advanced designs."
An NPR report revealed changes made to the U.S. Department of Energy's regulatory review process have expanded the agency's authority to regulate other forms of nuclear power generation, like small modular reactors.
NPR previously reported that experts warned the changes could undermine safety, security and environmental protections.
NextEra Energy is said to be considering the ramifications of developing small modular reactors. Orlove, with the utility, wouldn’t say whether the Duane Arnold site would or could be converted into a hub for small modular reactors, but he did say the company is “taking a measured approach” and looking at potential builders.
“We’re looking at them and looking at where is the best location to develop and operate these plants,” Orlove said. “It’s a journey, and we will have some announcements in the not-near future but going down the pike. Certainly, we’re involved and very eager to see the prospects of small modular reactors and new nuclear technology.”
NextEra Energy abandoned plans for four solar projects when it entered into the agreement with Google, building off the interconnection agreements it had arranged from those projects. In public testimony, NextEra Energy Executive Director Joshua Marcum said the reason was that the company was unsuccessful in finding a customer for the projects.
Public health concerns raised related to nuclear energy production
The U.S. Department of Energy says nuclear power is a zero-emission resource, but it is broadly considered non-renewable. Nuclear plants rely on uranium, a finite resource, and critics of the Duane Arnold restart plan say they have concerns about potential health impacts and long-term storage of nuclear waste.
After enriched uranium is used to power the reactor, spent fuel is typically stored in a cooling pool, where the fuel radiation slowly dissipates over several years. Then, the still-radioactive spent fuel is placed in on-site dry cask storage —large aluminum containers lined with concrete.
During the decommissioning process for Duane Arnold, NextEra Energy placed all the plant’s spent fuel in dry cask storage, where it remains.
“It’s basically like a large crypt, and it’s being pushed into that crypt and then sealed behind concrete and steel,” Orlove said. “That is the standard that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has put in place for the safe storage of spent fuel.”
Though federal regulators and industry leaders have long discussed a single spent fuel repository, no such facility exists. That leaves nuclear plant operators to store all the plant’s spent fuel on-site, which is what Duane Arnold’s operators have done since the plant's earliest days.
Representatives of the Sierra Club, a national environmental advocacy group, have raised questions about the long-term viability of the canisters containing the spent fuel during and after the decommissioning process, as well as the potential public health impacts associated with nuclear power generation.
“The danger with this reactor does not end when the reactor is closed, but this fuel sitting there can be a huge problem, and there are significant unknowns that scientists have not been able to identify,” said Don Safer, co-chair of the Sierra Club’s Nuclear Free Team.
Some researchers have warned of potential health impacts related to nuclear power generation. Research by Joseph Mangano, executive director of the Radiation and Public Health Project, involves comparing Iowa’s cancer rates to the rates of the two counties closest to Duane Arnold — Linn County and Benton County — during the years the plant was operating.
“What we found was that instead of continuing to be below the state rate, the Benton and Linn rates were higher, and they got higher, and the excess increased over time,” Mangano said.
The NRC has said the Radiation and Public Health Project is not credible because much of its research does not examine other factors or rely on environmental analyses. Mangano acknowledged that his research does not pin down an exact cause for the counties’ high cancer rates during that period, but he said he does see a pattern in his research across the country.
“Cancer risk has many potential causes, especially as it pertains to Iowa. Certainly, radiation exposure is one of them,” he said. “There would have to be further analyses done of the types of cancer and when they happen, but right now I will say this: The shift in Benton and Linn County cancer incidents [in people under 40] compared to the state is consistent with pretty much most areas near nuclear plants.”
Other concerns raised include the possibility of tritium — a radioactive isotope that can easily incorporate into water — and volatile radionuclides, like cesium and iodine, being released into the environment during the plant’s operation.
Nguyen, on the NRC’s team inspecting Duane Arnold, said that the agency is looking at monitoring data for environmental concerns.
A January 2026 report from Nguyen’s inspection team at the NRC states, “No violations of more than minor significance were identified during this inspection.” A similar report from one month prior said the same thing, noting a small number of corrective actions related to missing signage and respiratory protection procedures.
The NRC is also working on an environmental assessment — looking at site modifications and groundwater resources — that could lead to the release of a more consequential environmental impact statement.
“If the action is determined to not have a significant impact on the environment, we’ll proceed with a finding of ‘no significant impact,’” said NRC Project Manager Kim Conway at the NRC’s public meeting. “If, however, we do determine, based on our review, that the proposed action has the potential to significantly impact the environment, we will prepare an [Environmental Impact Statement].”
Additionally, the NRC has strict limits on the amount of radioactive emissions that can come from nuclear plants. In a filing by NextEra Energy for a hearing with the Iowa Utilities Commission, the NRC stated, “the concentrations of radionuclides released into the environment from a nuclear facility are generally too low to be measurable outside the plant’s boundary."
Forbes, at the University of Iowa, said multiple regulatory agencies monitor groundwater data to examine radiation levels and the quantities of radionuclides. She said the question that remains is whether there is a connection to public health.
“The detection piece is not really the issue,” she said. “It’s the, ‘What do we do with the detection data? How do we see the effects on public health?’”
While Forbes understands concerns related to tritium and other potentially harmful elements entering the environment, the data appears to show very low dose levels — what she considers “background" levels.
“When I see the levels that are associated with the nuclear power plants, and then you look at levels that are associated with radon or radium and groundwater and those kind of things, we’re talking about levels that are actually, in some cases, lower than what we have for naturally occurring radiation," she said.
During an Iowa Utilities Commission meeting, Amir Bahadori, who runs the nuclear engineering program at Kansas State University, acknowledged that there were detectable levels of certain noble gases and radionuclides released by Duane Arnold during its operation. But, he said, there is no proof of connection between the elements and high cancer rates.
“At the levels relevant for Duane Arnold operation, there have been no studies clearly demonstrating cancer risk,” Bahadori said.
