Microsoft has agreed to a 20-year cope with Constellation Power to revive the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, aiming to energy its rising synthetic intelligence information centres with carbon-free electrical energy.
Three Mile Island, notorious for a 1979 partial meltdown in its Unit 2 reactor, has been a logo of nuclear energy’s dangers. This restart try focuses on the separate, undamaged Unit 1.
Constellation plans to speculate $1.6 billion to restart the plant’s undamaged Unit 1 reactor by early 2028, pending regulatory approvals.The 837-megawatt reactor, which closed in 2019 resulting from financial pressures, might be renamed the Crane Clear Power Middle.
This marks the primary time Microsoft has secured a devoted, 100% nuclear facility for its use. The Redmond big may have unique rights to the reactor’s total output, serving to gasoline information centre expansions in Chicago, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
“This settlement is a significant milestone in Microsoft’s efforts to assist decarbonize the grid,” mentioned Bobby Hollis, Microsoft’s vice chairman of power. The corporate goals to run all its international information centres on clear power by 2025.
Three Mile Island, notorious for a 1979 partial meltdown in its Unit 2 reactor, has been a logo of nuclear energy’s dangers. This restart try focuses on the separate, undamaged Unit 1.
Constellation plans to speculate $1.6 billion to restart the plant’s undamaged Unit 1 reactor by early 2028, pending regulatory approvals.The 837-megawatt reactor, which closed in 2019 resulting from financial pressures, might be renamed the Crane Clear Power Middle.
This marks the primary time Microsoft has secured a devoted, 100% nuclear facility for its use. The Redmond big may have unique rights to the reactor’s total output, serving to gasoline information centre expansions in Chicago, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
“This settlement is a significant milestone in Microsoft’s efforts to assist decarbonize the grid,” mentioned Bobby Hollis, Microsoft’s vice chairman of power. The corporate goals to run all its international information centres on clear power by 2025.
‘Largest-ever energy buy deal’
Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez referred to as the settlement their largest-ever energy buy deal, stating, “There is no model of the way forward for this nation that does not depend on these nuclear property.”
The mission faces potential hurdles, together with regulatory opinions, tools upgrades, and grid connection challenges. Nevertheless, if profitable, it may mark a turning level for the nuclear trade and the tech sector’s method to powering AI infrastructure.
The revival requires approvals from the US Nuclear Regulatory Fee and state and native companies. Constellation will even search to increase the plant’s working licence by 2054.
