The Iowa Utilities Commission has approved a generating certificate for the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo, marking an important procedural step in NextEra Energy’s efforts to restart the 615-megawatt nuclear power plant.
The IUC order, issued around midday Thursday, June 18, grants a certificate of public convenience, use and necessity to restart the plant. “Permission and authority are hereby granted to construct, operate, and maintain the nuclear electric generation facility as described in the order,” the approval filing says.
The order also requires the filing of additional information with the IUC, including updates on a final generator interconnection agreement (GIA) at the plant site and the ongoing licensure process with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Importantly, the order issued Thursday does not mean the plant has received its final approval to restart, as a series of federal regulatory approvals are still being reviewed.
Florida-based NextEra, the plant’s majority owner, through its Iowa subsidiary, NextEra Duane Arnold (NEDA), is still seeking approval from the NRC to transition Duane Arnold from its current decommissioning status – a process that’s been underway since late 2020 – back to an operational status.
The NRC is also conducting inspections of the plant to ensure its operational readiness and emergency preparedness.
Several other hurdles, however, have already been cleared. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a waiver request in August 2025 to allow NextEra to use the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s generator replacement process to consolidate solar interconnection agreements at Duane Arnold with a remaining interconnection agreement for the nuclear power plant.
And a rezoning request for the 393-acre Duane Arnold site was approved by the Linn County Board of Supervisors in January, changing the site’s zoning from agricultural to the county’s new Exclusive Use 2 (EU-2) zoning category, specifically to accommodate nuclear power generation.
Wally Taylor of Cedar Rapids served as the attorney for Beyond Nuclear, an environmental advocacy non-profit that campaigns for a total phase-out of nuclear power and was a party to the IUC proceeding. He said Thursday he was “disappointed but not surprised” with the ruling.
“What I would say generally is that the [IUC] picked and chose what statutes or interpretations they wanted in order to get the result they wanted,” Mr. Taylor said.
He said several state statutes are intended to encourage the development of renewable energy projects over non-renewable alternatives, such as nuclear plants.
They didn’t cite any of those statutes,” Mr. Taylor said. “They cited a statute that really was supposed to be for renewable energy, and basically still is.”
He said the IUC persuaded lawmakers to add nuclear power to the state’s list of preferred energy generation sources.
He also said that according to state statutes, any new generation facility should provide “adequate, cost-efficient power to Iowa consumers.”
“Duane Arnold would be supplying power just to Google,” Mr. Taylor said.
He said Beyond Nuclear would likely be filing a formal motion to reconsider the IUC’s ruling.
The Duane Arnold plant was shut down in late 2020, after the August 2020 derecho brought 140 mph winds that heavily damaged the plant’s cooling towers and other infrastructure, NextEra Energy officials said.
Prior to the storm, the plant was scheduled to be decommissioned in October 2020 after its main customer, Alliant Energy, paid $110 million in 2018 to exit its power purchase agreement with the plant five years earlier than planned. At the time, Alliant spokesman Justin Foss said the deal for early decommissioning of Duane Arnold came about as a result of discussions on extending the utility’s power purchase agreement (PPA) with the plant. The power prices quoted by NextEra did not seem appealing for Alliant’s customers, Mr. Foss said.
Since then, the plant has been in the midst of a 60-year decommissioning process.
However, rising power demand, spurred in large measure by the rapid development of data centers and other power-hungry enterprises, spurred NextEra Duane Arnold to pursue the plant’s restart, filing its restart application with the IUC in October 2025.
The majority of the plant’s power output will be used by Google. Under a 25-year power purchase agreement announced in October 2025, the tech giant said it will purchase most of the power from the Duane Arnold plant to support its cloud and AI infrastructure in Iowa – including the Google data center under construction in southwest Cedar Rapids and another Google data center proposed near Duane Arnold – while the Central Iowa Power Cooperative (CIPCO) will purchase the remaining output.
If the plant restarts, its local economic impact is expected to be substantial. According to an economic study released by NextEra, the restart project is expected to create approximately 400 direct full-time jobs during operations and more than 1,600 direct, indirect and induced jobs during construction.
The study projects the restart will generate more than $340 million in annual economic output during operations across Iowa.
In Linn County alone, the study projects more than 800 direct, indirect and induced jobs during construction, with local earnings during construction exceeding $89 million and long-term local earnings exceeding $127 million. Linn County alone is expected to receive an average of $3 million in annual tax revenue.
