Three Mile Island nuclear plant will reopen to power Microsoft data centers

Three Mile Island, the ability plant close to Middletown, Pa., that was the scene of the worst business nuclear accident in U.S. historical past, will reopen to energy Microsoft’s knowledge facilities, that are accountable for powering the tech large’s cloud computing and synthetic intelligence packages.

Constellation Vitality, which payments itself as America’s largest producer of “clear, carbon-free vitality,” introduced Friday that it had signed its largest-ever energy buy settlement with Microsoft.

“Powering industries important to our nation’s world financial and technological competitiveness, together with knowledge facilities, requires an abundance of vitality that’s carbon-free and dependable each hour of each day, and nuclear crops are the one vitality sources that may persistently ship on that promise,” stated Joe Dominguez, Constellation Vitality’s president and CEO.

The deal will create roughly 3,400 jobs and produce in additional than $3 billion in state and federal taxes, in response to the corporate. It additionally stated the settlement will add $16 billion to Pennsylvania’s GDP.

The settlement will span 20 years, and the plant is predicted to reopen in 2028. It will likely be renamed the Crane Clear Vitality Heart in honor of Chris Crane, who died in April and served because the CEO of Constellation’s former dad or mum firm.

“Pennsylvania’s nuclear vitality business performs a important position in offering protected, dependable, carbon-free electrical energy that helps cut back emissions and develop Pennsylvania’s economic system,” Gov. Josh Shapiro stated.

In contrast to energy crops utilizing fossil fuels, like coal or pure gasoline, nuclear crops don’t straight launch carbon dioxide or different greenhouse gasoline emissions driving world warming.

The partial nuclear reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island occurred on March 28, 1979, when one of many plant’s two reactors’ cooling mechanisms malfunctioned. The reactor that shall be reopened to energy Microsoft’s knowledge facilities was not concerned within the accident.

“Earlier than it was prematurely shuttered attributable to poor economics, this plant was among the many most secure and most dependable nuclear crops on the grid, and we stay up for bringing it again with a brand new identify and a renewed mission to function an financial engine for Pennsylvania,” Dominguez stated.

Nonetheless, some state activists are anxious that taxpayers would foot the invoice for the plant’s reopening, StateImpact Pennsylvania reported.

“What could be a greater funding for our cash? That’s the query we ought to be asking. We had been advised: let {the marketplace} resolve. The market determined, they usually determined it’s not nuclear,” stated Eric Epstein of the watchdog group Three Mile Island Alert.

Three Mile Island’s working reactor was shut down in 2019, after a legislative effort to bail out the plant failed when it couldn’t sustain with demand for different cheaper vitality sources.

Former Microsoft CEO Invoice Gates invested $1 billion in a nuclear energy plant that broke floor in Kemmerer, Wyo., in June. The plant will energy properties and AI, Gates advised NPR’s Steve Inskeep.

Editor’s notice: Constellation Vitality and Microsoft are amongst NPR’s current monetary supporters.

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