Microsoft Would Restart Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant to Power AI
Microsoft has announced a deal to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania. It’s the latest move by a technology company to use nuclear power to provide electricity for energy-intensive data centers and support the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
The agreement announced September 20, if approved by regulators, would allow Microsoft to buy all the power from the 835-MW nuclear plant for at least 20 years. Maryland-based Constellation Energy owns the facility, which was officially closed in 2019. Three Mile Island is the site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history, a partial reactor meltdown at the plant in 1979.
Constellation officials on Friday said the plant could be back online by 2028. It would be known as the Crane Clean Energy Center in honor of a former Constellation executive.
Maria Korsnick, CEO and president of the Nuclear Energy Institute, said, “The Crane Clean Energy Center is a fitting honor for a nuclear industry leader and will bring significant benefits to Pennsylvania and the nation. In addition to restoring jobs and clean, reliable energy to the state, the investment will help the country meet its climate and energy independence goals and serve as a catalyst for future investment and economic growth in the region.”
Amazon Agreement
The Microsoft deal comes a few months after tech giant Amazon reached an agreement with Talen Energy to purchase power from the Susquehanna nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. That deal, to provide power for a planned data center campus, is still being evaluated by regulators.
“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,” said Joe Dominguez, president and CEO, Constellation, in a statement. “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. We are especially honored to name this new plant after our former CEO Chris Crane, who was a fierce advocate for our business, devoting his entire career to the safe, reliable operation of our nation’s nuclear fleet, and we will continue that legacy at the Crane Clean Energy Center.”
Dominguez told the Washington Post: “The energy industry cannot be the reason China or Russia beats us in AI. This plant never should have been allowed to shut down … It will produce as much clean energy as all of the renewables [wind and solar] built in Pennsylvania over the last 30 years.”
“This agreement is a major milestone in Microsoft’s efforts to help decarbonize the grid in support of our commitment to become carbon negative,” said Microsoft VP of Energy Bobby Hollis in a statement. “Microsoft continues to collaborate with energy providers to develop carbon-free energy sources to help meet the grid’s capacity and reliability needs.”
Dominguez said the restart plan would cost Constellation about $1.6 billion. The chief executive said it is dependent on federal government tax breaks for nuclear power included in the Inflation Reduction Act signed by President Biden in 2022.
More Restarts in the Works?
A U.S. nuclear power plant has not re-entered service after being decommissioned, but industry officials have told POWER that rising demand for electricity—particularly from data centers and the use of AI—could support restarts. Lucian Niemeyer, CEO of Building Cyber Security and longtime U.S. government official in the Dept. of Defense, in a keynote address at the P3 Electrified event in San Diego, California, on September 17, said the need for more baseload power could support a resurgence for nuclear power and “bring decommissioned plants back online.” The P3 event was held in conjunction with POWER; both groups are part of Maryland-headquartered Access Intelligence.
Holtec International, a Florida-based supplier of equipment for the electric power industry, is working to bring the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan back online. The power station’s single 800-MW pressurised water reactor was shut down in 2022 after more than 40 years of commercial operation. Holtec bought the plant from Entergy, but instead of decommissioning the facility decided to seek approval to restart the plant.
Jag Singh, Regional Sector Lead for Clean Generation at Stantec, a global engineering, architecture, and environmental consulting company, told POWER that “Restarting nuclear power plants is not only a great idea, but these programs are essential to achieve global climate goals. Some of the biggest perceived risks to nuclear power is the capital expenditure associated with new nuclear builds and long schedule timelines. Often, utilities are deterred to proceed along a true clean energy journey with the risk-adverse perspective of potential cost overruns and schedule delays. Existing nuclear plants have the most capital and time-intensive infrastructure already constructed, and therefore these two big risk factors are significantly reduced by restarting an existing plant.”
Singh specializes in nuclear energy and small modular reactors with a focus on new nuclear builds, plant lifetime extension, nuclear decommissioning, and waste management. He told POWER more restarts of closed facilities are likely.
“Yes, I believe so. We are already seeing planned restarts here in North America announced with Palisades and most recently Three Mile Island. But globally, the conversation is [also] being had about extending or restarting nuclear plants,” said Singh. “Countries across Europe, as well as Japan, China, and India, are all at least having the conversation given that energy security and reliability is becoming more and more of a concern with the exponentially increasing demands from population density, industrial growth, and next-gen emerging technology such as AI. The stable continuous baseload is what makes nuclear appetizing, and this will naturally drive demand to produce clean energy in the most expeditious way—nuclear restarts and plant lifetime extensions [PLEX].”
Singh said that while restarts and PLEX situations “are more expeditious than a new build to capitalize on nuclear energy, the challenges specific to restarts arise on plant-specific modifications to address plant safety, performance, degradation, and obsolescence to bring the plant up to scratch with modern day codes, standards, and best available techniques, and executing these campaigns to modify the existing site in a timely and cost-effective manner.” Singh added, “For PLEX, these campaigns would focus on preventive and corrective actions that can extend the life of the plant through upgrades. This challenge is in relation to the increased cost and lead times of specific equipment, further engineering for any shortfalls in confinement or safety systems against the original plant build, and availability of replacement bespoke equipment.
“Ultimately, there are also regulatory approvals that need to be granted when restarting or extending a plant, and the safety case has to account for modern-day best practice and robustness, [and] this can be time-consuming. These factors and nuances can make the campaigns a complex endeavor, but having experienced and knowledgeable teams and supply chains to drive these programs will mitigate these specific challenges,” said Singh.
$1.5 Billion Loan for Palisades
The Biden-Harris administration in late March of this year announced a $1.5 billion conditional loan commitment for work at Palisades. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has never authorized the restart of a nuclear plant, which would be a necessary step to bring a facility back online.
Constellation earlier had said it was looking at a possible restart of Three Mile Island among options for the plant, in part because of the jobs and economic development it would support. The Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council in a study said the reopened plant would create as many as 3,400 jobs, and generate $3 billion in state and federal taxes.
Dominguez said Constellation has been testing equipment at Three Mile Island, and said, “The plant is in extraordinary shape.”
“The start of the Crane Clean Energy Center represents an important milestone for our nation, the region, and the people of the great state of Pennsylvania,” said Dr. Michael Goff, Acting Assistant Secretary in the Dept. of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy.“Always-on, carbon-free nuclear energy plays an important role in the fight against climate change and meeting the country’s growing energy demands.”
—Darrell Proctor is senior editor for POWER (@POWERmagazine).