(Bloomberg) -- NextEra Energy Inc. has asked US regulators for a licensing change for its shuttered Duane Arnold nuclear plant, a first step toward potentially restarting the Iowa facility amid soaring power consumption from artificial intelligence and data centers.

NextEra aims to get the reactor up and running again as early as the end of 2028, it said Friday in an earnings release. The request was filed with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday, according to a company representative. NextEra had previously said it was interested in reviving the plant.

Surging US power demand from data centers, new factories and the electrification of the economy as part of the green transition has reawakened interest in nuclear energy. In September, NextEra rival Constellation Energy Corp. announced plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Pennsylvania to supply Microsoft Corp.

The 600-megawatt Duane Arnold plant closed in 2020 after its biggest customer decided to exit its power-purchase agreement. The facility was also damaged in a windstorm that same year, prompting the company to close the plant two months earlier than planned.

NextEra has said Duane Arnold, which went into service in 1974, uses less-complex technology that may make it easier to revive than newer nuclear plants. But Jefferies & Co. analyst Julian Dumoulin-Smith has said bringing the facility back into service would be costly and there’s no guarantee the economics would be justified.