USA: Three Mile Island Reopens for Microsoft Artificial Intelligence
The plant was the site of a serious nuclear accident in 1979
Constellation Energy will restart the nuclear reactor at its Three Mile Island power plant in Pennsylvania. The energy produced will be sold to Microsoft.
The plant’s last reactor, which in 1979 was responsible for the worst nuclear accident in the USA, was shut down in 2019 because it was no longer competitive. Now, because of computing needs to power artificial intelligence, the cards on the table seem to have changed.
The agreement signed between Constellation and Microsoft, according to Reuters, calls for the restart of the plant’s first unit, the second unit of which was closed after a partial merger in 1979.
The expected cost to upgrade the power plant is $1.6 billion, and the goal, pending final approvals, is to begin generating power relatively quickly, in 2028. The agreements stipulate that Microsoft will purchase power from this power plant for 20 years.