Three Mile Island, a shuttered nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania where a reactor accident in 1979 was the worst commercial nuclear power plant accident in US history, has been reopened to generate power for artificial intelligence.
Constellation Energy will restart one of its pressurized water reactors, Three Mile Island Unit 1, in preparation for the opening of the Crane Clean Energy Center, which will generate nuclear energy purchased by Microsoft to power its AI data centers, the companies announced Friday.
Under the agreement between the two companies, Microsoft will purchase energy from the plant as part of its goal to provide zero-carbon energy for its data centers.
“This agreement marks a major milestone in our efforts to decarbonize the power grid in support of our commitment to become carbon negative. We are committed to working with electricity providers to develop carbon-free energy sources to meet grid capacity and reliability needs,” Bobby Hollis, Microsoft vice president of Energy, said in a statement.
Jacopo Buongiorno, a professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), told ABC News that the power purchase agreement “makes sense” because it would provide the data center with emission-free electricity 24/7, while also providing a steady stream of revenue for the plant.
The move also “further validates” the economic and environmental value of using existing nuclear plants to meet the U.S.’ decarbonization goals, Bongiorno said.
“Building new nuclear plants takes a lot of time and money, so extending the licenses of current nuclear plants or refurbishing and restarting recently closed plants is a very attractive proposition,” Buongiorno said in an email.
According to a study commissioned by the Pennsylvania Construction Labor Council, the Crane Clean Energy Center (CCEC) is expected to directly and indirectly create 3,400 jobs and add more than 800 megawatts of carbon-free electricity to the electric grid.
“CCEC will support thousands of family-sustaining jobs for decades to come,” Rob Baer, president of the Pennsylvania Construction Labor Council, said in a statement. “CCEC will play a leading role in Pennsylvania in attracting and retaining reliable, clean energy jobs that will define the future.”
The Three Mile Island nuclear plant, located on the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, closed in 2019 for financial reasons, according to Constellation Energy. Owner Exelon Corp. said in 2017 that the closure was due to insufficient financial relief from the state.
According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, on March 28, 1979, the reactor core of Three Mile Island Unit 2 suffered a partial meltdown when equipment failure and human error caused a water pump to fail, cutting off the supply of coolant to the reactor.
Constellation Energy said the Unit 1 reactor is adjacent to Unit 2, which was shut down after the 1979 accident and is being decommissioned by its owner, Energy Solutions.
According to a recent poll by Susquehanna Polling and Research, public support for restarting the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant is strong, with residents favoring restarting it by a margin of more than two to one as long as taxes or utility bills are not required to fund the restart.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said in a statement that the nuclear industry has a “critical role” in providing safe, reliable, carbon-free energy.
“My administration will continue to work to reduce energy costs and ensure the reliability of our energy grid so that Pennsylvanians can have access to affordable electricity produced right here in Pennsylvania for years to come, and the Crane Clean Energy Center will help us achieve those goals,” Shapiro said.