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 liable for powering the tech large’s cloud computing and synthetic intelligence applications.

Constellation Vitality, which payments itself as America’s largest producer of “clear, carbon-free power,” 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 power that’s carbon-free and dependable each hour of daily, and nuclear crops are the one power sources that may constantly ship on that promise,” mentioned 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 keeping with the corporate. It additionally mentioned 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 is going to 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 mother or father firm.

“Pennsylvania’s nuclear power trade 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 mentioned.

Not like energy crops utilizing fossil fuels, like coal or pure gasoline, nuclear crops don’t instantly 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 look ahead to bringing it again with a brand new title and a renewed mission to function an financial engine for Pennsylvania,” Dominguez mentioned.

Nonetheless, some state activists are apprehensive 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 needs to be asking. We have been instructed: let {the marketplace} determine. The market determined, they usually determined it’s not nuclear,” mentioned 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 power 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 houses and AI, Gates instructed NPR’s Steve Inskeep.

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

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