(Radio Iowa) – NextEra Energy’s chief executive says the company is exploring whether it could reopen the nuclear power plant in eastern Iowa that was closed down four years ago.

“We are currently evaluating the recommissioning of our Duane Arnold plant in Iowa,” NextEra Energy chairman and CEO John Ketchum said during a conference call with investors on Wednesday.

Ketchum said nuclear power will play a role in meeting the country’s increasing demand for energy, but there are only 20 so-called “merchant” nuclear plants that generate power for sale on the open market — and only two of them are west of the Mississippi River.

“Nuclear plants across the country are already serving existing demand,” he said, “so even if they are contracted by specific customers, new resources need to be built to meet new demand.”

Most of the country’s nuclear reactors were built between 1970 and 1990. Small modular reactors called SMRs are operating in China and Russia, but there are none in the U.S.

“Alternatives such as new utility-scale nuclear and SMRs are unproven, expensive and, again, not expected to be commercially viable at scale until the latter part of the next decade,” Ketchum said.

NextEra acquired the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo in 2005. The plant was decommissioned in 2020 after 45 years of operation. NextEra began installing solar panels on the property earlier this year. Ketchum said expanding the capacity of solar and wind generation is critical to ensuring power bills don’t skyrocket due to scarce electricity supply.

“Today, there are forecasts for an approximate 6x increase in power demand growth in the next 20 years versus the prior 20,” Ketchum says. “That significant projected shift in fundamental demand is across industries, driven in large part by 7 by 24 loads from data centers.”

Google, Facebook and Microsoft all operate data centers in Iowa.