Microsoft deal would reopen Pennsylvania nuclear plant, site of 1979 partial meltdown, to power AI

A new agreement between Microsoft and Constellation Energy Corporation to provide power to the tech giant’s data centers for artificial intelligence is paving the way for the restart of a nuclear reactor on Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island, the site of a 1979 partial meltdown. 

The Baltimore-based Constellation on Friday announced that the 20-year deal it has struck with Microsoft will create the "Crane Clean Energy Center and restart of Three Mile Island Unit 1, which operated at industry-leading levels of safety and reliability for decades before being shut down for economic reasons exactly five years ago today." 

"Under the agreement, Microsoft will purchase energy from the renewed plant as part of its goal to help match the power its data centers... use with carbon-free energy," Constellation said. 

Three Mile Island, located near Middletown — just south of Pennsylvania’s capital of Harrisburg — is the site of a partial meltdown of its Unit 2 reactor in March 1979, which prompted mass evacuations. 

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"This was the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history, although its small radioactive releases had no detectable health effects on plant workers or the public," the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says. 

Constellation is now hoping to get the Crane Clean Energy Center at Unit 1 online by 2028 and secure a license that will allow it to extend plant operations until at least 2054. 

"The Unit 1 reactor is located adjacent to TMI Unit 2, which shut down in 1979 and is in the process of being decommissioned by its owner, Energy Solutions. TMI Unit 1 is a fully independent facility, and its long-term operation was not impacted by the Unit 2 accident," the company said. 

"To prepare for the restart, significant investments will be made to restore the plant, including the turbine, generator, main power transformer and cooling and control systems. Restarting a nuclear reactor requires U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval following a comprehensive safety and environmental review, as well as permits from relevant state and local agencies," it added. 

Constellation expects to spend $1.6 billion reviving the plant and for the review process to be completed by 2027, Reuters reports.

"It’s up to Constellation to lay out its rationale for justifying restart, so we’re prepared to engage with the company on next steps," Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesperson Scott Burnell told Reuters.

The company has not yet filed an application with federal nuclear regulators to bring the plant back online, the news agency adds.

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Constellation cited a study commissioned by the Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council that found that the new Crane Clean Energy Center will create 3,400 jobs, add more than 800 megawatts of carbon-free electricity to the grid and bolster Pennsylvania’s GDP by $16 billion. 

"This agreement is a major milestone in Microsoft's efforts to help decarbonize the grid in support of our commitment to become carbon negative," Bobby Hollis, Microsoft’s vice president of energy, said in a statement. 

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"Powering industries critical to our nation’s global economic and technological competitiveness, including data centers, requires an abundance of energy that is carbon-free and reliable every hour of every day, and nuclear plants are the only energy sources that can consistently deliver on that promise," added Constellation President and CEO Joe Dominguez. "Before it was prematurely shuttered due to poor economics, this plant was among the safest and most reliable nuclear plants on the grid, and we look forward to bringing it back with a new name and a renewed mission to serve as an economic engine for Pennsylvania."