Three US nuclear reactors that had been shut down are being brought back online to supply power for AI data centers, adding a combined 2.25 GW to the grid. The Palisades plant in Michigan, the Crane Clean Energy Center at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, and the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa are all being refurbished after years offline.
Palisades is the furthest along: it was actively being decommissioned, making it the first reactor to return after dismantling had begun. It was loading fuel in August 2026 and is expected to generate 800 MW around March 2027. The Crane facility, using Three Mile Island's Unit 1, is projected to add 835 MW in 2027, with Microsoft as the main customer under a 20-year contract. Duane Arnold, a NextEra-Google collaboration, should add 615 MW in 2029.
The economics have shifted. These plants were closed because they were too expensive to run, but data center operators now face long waits for grid connections and are willing to pay a premium for power. Financing for Palisades came from a Department of Energy loan under the Biden administration's 2024 nuclear investment; the other two received loans under the Trump administration's 2025 push. The Three Mile Island project still needs Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval before fuel loading.
State forecasts for data center demand are loose, ranging from 1.2–2.3 GW in Michigan, 0.8–3.4 GW in Pennsylvania, and 1.55–2.8 GW in Iowa by around 2030, but these include planned projects that may not be built or may slip. The restarted reactors alone will not necessarily cover those ranges. NextEra's CEO also noted that the Google contract means none of the costs are paid by residential customers in Iowa.