By Avi Salzman

Backers of nuclear energy envision dozens of shiny new nuclear reactors being built all over America over the next decade. For now, the nuclear renaissance looks more like a tag sale, where old reactors are being dusted off and refurbished to add more electricity to the grid as soon as possible.

The electricity needed for the tech industry's artificial intelligence race is turning reactors that were once unprofitable albatrosses into potential profit-drivers for the handful of companies that own them.

One such refurb won approval this week in Iowa. Florida-based renewable energy giant NextEra Energy plans to bring back a reactor at a site known as the Duane Arnold energy center near Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It will be the third potential restart of a mothballed nuclear facility to be announced since the start of 2024.

Already Constellation Energy has said it plans to restart a reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania in 2027, and privately held Holtec International is on the brink of restarting a plant known as Palisades in Michigan.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees U.S. electricity grids, just approved NextEra's application to restart the Iowa plant, with the earliest possible commercial operations date being late 2028. NextEra needs some equipment to restart the plant that won't be available until 2028, the FERC order says.

The Duane Arnold plant closed in 2020 because it couldn't compete financially -- natural gas and renewable energy were cheaper sources of electricity generation. But soaring power demand has made firm generation sources like nuclear more valuable, and the federal government has introduced large new tax breaks that essentially set a floor under nuclear power prices.

NextEra now sees the Duane Arnold plant as a potential earnings driver at a time when other parts of the company's business are facing challenges.

NextEra is one of the country's largest owners of renewable electricity generation, but subsidies for wind and solar power are going away because of the new tax law enacted in July. NextEra CEO John Ketchum said on the company's latest earnings call that Duane Arnold can be "one of many ways that we have to continue to grow the business in the future."

The nuclear restarts are good news for the companies that own the plants -- the nuclear subsidies, which were extended in the tax law, should make them profitable. And reactor owners have been able to make special deals with tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon to sell them power for their AI data centers -- a source of revenue that wasn't around when Duane Arnold initially closed down.

The restarts should also help companies that mine and process nuclear fuel, which will see more demand for their services. Among the players in this space that should benefit are uranium miners Cameco and NexGen Energy, and fuel-enricher Centrus.

Write to Avi Salzman at avi.salzman@barrons.com

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August 27, 2025 12:35 ET (16:35 GMT)

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