US restarts shuttered nuclear plants for data centre power: Palisades, Three Mile Island, Duane Arnold

The US is restarting three closed nuclear plants to meet rising electricity demand, especially from data centres. The Department of Energy is lending up to USD 4.4 billion to bring back Palisades in Michigan, Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, and Duane Arnold in Iowa. Together they would add 2.25 GW of carbon-free baseload power, enough for roughly 2 million homes. Palisades is furthest along and must be in service by March 2027 under its power purchase agreements. Google has a contract to restart Duane Arnold, and Microsoft has a 20-year deal for Three Mile Island. These long-term agreements let Big Tech pay a premium for firm, carbon-free electricity without pushing costs onto residential ratepayers. Restarting existing reactors is faster and cheaper than building new ones, but it still requires fresh safety reviews, retrained workers, and new fuel. No commercial reactor has restarted after beginning decommissioning, so Palisades would be a global first if it succeeds. The debate is whether federal loans should back projects with private buyers, and whether old plants are safe enough as extreme weather becomes more frequent. For anyone tracking grid decarbonization, the story is about firm clean power, data centre demand, and the risk in bringing old assets back online.