Google has unveiled a plan to restart a US nuclear facility in Iowa to power the company's artificial intelligence infrastructure.
It made the announcement to reopen the Duane Arnold Energy Center in collaboration with electric power company NextEra Energy.
The facility, which was shuttered in 2020, would return to service in 2029 "to help power Google's growing cloud and AI infrastructure in Iowa", the companies said in a joint statement.
Google signed off on a 25-year agreement to purchase power from the facility once it restarted.
It comes more than a year after power company Constellation announced it was in the process of restarting the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania following a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft.
That facility had also closed in 2019 due to economic reasons and is also known for a near-catastrophic meltdown there in 1979.
It has been announced it will return as the Crane Clean Energy Center.
The Google plant would be 100 per cent owned by NextEra, which struck a deal with minority owners to purchase the share of the plant it does not currently own, the companies said.
"As the US enters a new era of innovation and opportunity driven by AI, this strategic collaboration aims to enable Google to grow its business needs responsibly," the statement said.
The statement also praised nuclear energy as a carbon-free source of power.
"This partnership serves as a model for the investments needed across the country to build energy capacity and deliver reliable, clean power, while protecting affordability and creating jobs that will drive the AI-driven economy," said Ruth Porat, president and chief investment officer of Alphabet and Google.
John Ketchum, chairman and CEO of NextEra Energy, said the partnership "accelerates the development of next-generation nuclear technology".
AI energy needs surge
AI has emerged as a major source of energy demand in 2025.
In April, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projected that electricity consumption by data centres will more than double by 2030.
The IEA report said electricity consumption from data centres was estimated to amount to around 415 terawatt hours, or about 1.5 per cent of global electricity consumption, in 2024.
The report added a warning that there was "substantial uncertainty both about data centre consumption today and in the future".
Google has announced other initiatives to secure additional power capacity, including a venture with Elementl Power to develop three advanced nuclear power plants in the United States.
ABC/AFP
