Last October, Google said it would bring an Iowa nuclear power plant back from the dead. Now, the facility’s owner, NextEra Energy, has received a $1.9 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy to finance the refurbishment.
The nuclear power industry is undergoing something of a renaissance, with startups raking in funding to develop advanced reactors in a quest to lower costs. But based on recent projections, it’s unlikely those reactors will be cost-competitive anytime soon.
Nuclear power startups have been pitching themselves as the antidote to what ails AI data centers: power that’s always available. Bill Gates-founded TerraPower is one of the latest to throw its hat that into that ring, with Bloomberg reporting that the startup plans to announce its first data center project this year.
