Demand is fast-growing from data centers run by tech giants to provide cloud computing and digital services such as artificial intelligence systems.
LONDONDERRY TOWNSHIP, Pa. (WHTM) – Constellation Energy Corporation announced its plan to restart the Unit 1 nuclear reactor at Three Mile Island as part of a purchase agreement with Microsoft.
Five years ago, Three Mile Island shut down Unit 1, located near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, for economic reasons. The Unit 1 reactor is located adjacent to Unit 2, which shut down in 1979 after a historic partial meltdown caused by a combination of human and mechanical errors.
Microsoft has agreed to purchase energy from the plant for 20 years to power its data centers. Buying the power is designed to help Microsoft meet its commitment to be “carbon negative” by 2030.
Constellation’s announcement comes after a wave of coal-fired and nuclear power plants have shut down in the past decade as competition from cheap natural gas flooded power markets.
That has elicited warnings that the U.S. is facing an electric reliability crisis. Meanwhile, demand is fast-growing from data centers run by tech giants like Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Google to provide cloud computing and digital services such as artificial intelligence systems.
In the U.S., growth in electricity demand is concentrated in states — primarily Virginia and Texas — that are seeing the rapid development of large-scale data centers, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said.
The data centers’ share of U.S. electricity use in the United States is around 4% currently, with some projections expecting that to double by 2030.
Multiple steps must be taken to restart a nuclear reactor in the U.S., and this starts with a significant investment to properly restore the plant. Constellation said that restarting a nuclear power plant requires U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval, a detailed safety and environmental review, and permits from state and local agencies.
Additionally, Constellation said it will pursue a separate license renewal that will extend the plant’s operations to 2054 as soon as possible.
They said that they plan to have the power plant online in 2028.
Before it was shut down in 2019, Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 had a generating capacity of 837 megawatts, which is enough to power more than 800,000 homes, Constellation said.
The destroyed Unit 2 is sealed, and its twin cooling towers remain standing. Its core was shipped years ago to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. What is left inside the containment building remains highly radioactive and encased in concrete.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.