Three Mile Island Redux — Nuke Will Be Restarted To Power Microsoft Data Center

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According to the New York Times, Constellation Energy plans to reopen the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, the site of the worst reactor accident in United States history. Three Mile Island became infamous when one of its two reactors partly melted down in 1979. The other reactor kept operating safely for decades until finally closing, for economic reasons, five years ago.

Now a revival is at hand. Microsoft, which needs tremendous amounts of electricity for its growing fleet of data centers, has agreed to buy as much power as it can from the plant for 20 years. Constellation plans to spend $1.6 billion to refurbish the reactor that recently closed and restart it by 2028, pending regulatory approval. “The symbolism is enormous,” said Joseph Dominguez, chief executive of Constellation, the nation’s largest nuclear operator. “This was the site of the industry’s greatest failure, and now it can be a place of rebirth.”

Until recently, the US nuclear industry seemed to be in permanent decline. Electric utilities closed 13 reactors between 2012 and 2022 in the face of competition from cheap natural gas and growing wind and solar power. But with energy demand spiking and fears of climate change rising, many states and businesses are reconsidering nuclear power, which can produce electricity around the clock without emitting the greenhouse gases that are heating the planet. Congress recently approved a tax credit aimed at keeping existing nuclear reactors running for years to come. In California, lawmakers reversed a decision to shut down the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant. And in Michigan, Holtec International is looking to restart the Palisades nuclear plant, which closed in 2022.

Reviving Three Mile Island

It’s not easy to reopen a nuclear reactor that has been mothballed for years. Constellation workers have been inspecting the closed reactor at Three Mile Island for the last 20 months, checking for signs of corrosion or decay. The company would need to replace the reactor’s main power transformer as well as restore its turbines and cooling systems. It also needs about 600 workers to staff the plant. When Three Mile Island shut down in 2019, most of its employees were sent by Constellation to other states. Many are now eager to return, Dominguez said. The refurbished unit will not be affected by the other reactor that melted down in the 1970s, known as Unit 2. It is currently in the process of being dismantled.

The new plant will also get an image makeover. It will be renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center, after a former chief executive Chris Crane, who died in April. Politicians in Pennsylvania hailed the announcement. “This will transform the local economy and presents a rare opportunity to power our economy with reliable clean energy that we can count on,” said Tom Mehaffie, a Republican state representative whose district includes the plant. “This is a rare and valuable opportunity to invest in clean, carbon-free and affordable power — on the heels of the hottest year in Earth’s history.” One recent poll found that 57 percent of Pennsylvania residents supported reopening Three Mile Island “as long as it does not include new taxes or increased electricity rates.”

Dominguez said Constellation would pay to refurbish the plant entirely out of its own pocket, and Microsoft would be on the hook for buying electricity from the plant for 20 years. “We’re not asking for a penny from the state or from utility customers,” he said.

Some people remain opposed to any restart. In August, about a dozen protesters stood outside the plant’s gates to protest the potential reopening, holding up signs commemorating the accident and recalling how residents were forced to evacuate after the partial meltdown, which caused no casualties but triggered widespread panic. Edwin Lyman, a physicist and critic of nuclear power at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said that safely reviving a reactor that had been shut down for so long could prove more technically challenging than expected. “No one’s really done this before,” he said.

Data & Energy

Tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon have shown an increasing interest in nuclear power as they struggle to meet the growing energy demands of artificial intelligence. Data centers need power 24 hours a day, something wind and solar power alone can’t provide. But many tech firms also have ambitious targets for fighting climate change and prefer not to use electricity produced by burning coal or gas. “Only a few short years ago, tech companies scoffed at buying nuclear electricity,” said Mark Nelson, managing director of Radiant Energy Group, an energy consultancy. “The return of Three Mile Island is the return of hard reality.”

Artificial intelligence is a marvelous thing, no doubt about it. The electricity needed to generate Michael Barnard’s AI graphics alone is about a gigawatt! The amount of money being spent to power data centers is staggering. In his most recent post, Barnard says quite clearly that nuclear power is distracting us from taking the actions needed to address global heating.

In Europe, Microsoft announced recently it would invest $3.2 billion for data centers in Sweden. Earlier this year, it said it would double its data center footprint in Germany, while also pledging a $4.3 billion data center investment for AI infrastructure in France. Amazon announced a network of data centers in the state of Brandenburg as part of a $8.5 billion investment in Germany, later dedicating another $17.1 billion to Spain. Google said it would spend $1.1 billion on its data center in Finland to drive AI growth. Careful readers may notice the amounts of money being spend to power AI is equivalent to the amount being invested in the manufacture of electric vehicles.

The Takeaway

Once refurbished, the reactor at Three Mile Island will have a capacity of 835 megawatts. The New York Times says that is enough to power more than 700,000 homes, but in all likelihood, not one electron from the refurbished nuke will power so much as a light bulb in any residence. The entire output will be used by Microsoft to expand its artificial intelligence capability.

Some people are giddy that nuclear power is getting a new lease on life. There have always been those who think nuclear is the greatest idea since sliced bread. But do we really want to embrace nuclear power just so we can use ChatGPT? Is that the highest and best use of our time and effort? Here at CleanTechnica, the response to the news about Three Mile Island being revived is that of one hand clapping. It’s better than building new coal-fired generating stations but hardly seems like cause for rejoicing.

It was only a short while ago that people were warning darkly that electric cars would need so much electricity to keep their batteries charged that they would crash the grid. But now that data centers seem likely to need vastly more electricity than EVs, there is not a hint of concern to be heard anywhere. Odd how when the FUDsters paid by the fossil fuel companies are not sent into battle, no one seems the least bit concerned about diverting enormous amounts of electricity for use by data centers, even if it means keeping nuclear power plants in service for longer and longer periods of time.

As Michael Barnard says, nuclear is a delaying tactic on the road to renewable energy. We need less of it, not more. That’s why we are not all that excited that the life of Three Mile Island is being extended.