HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant said Friday that it plans to restart the reactor under a 20-year agreement that calls for tech giant Microsoft to buy the power to supply its data centers with carbon-free energy. The announcement by Constellation Energy comes five years after its then-parent company Exelon shut down the plant , saying it was losing money and that Pennsylvania lawmakers had refused to subsidize it.
The plan to restart Three Mile Island's Unit 1 comes amid something of a renaissance for nuclear power, as policymakers are increasingly looking to it to bail out a fraying electric power supply, help avoid the worst effects of climate change and meet rising power demand driven by data centers. The plant, on an island in the Susquehanna River just outside Harrisburg, was the site of the nation’s worst commercial nuclear power accident, in 1979. The accident destroyed one reactor, Unit 2, and left the plant with one functioning reactor, Unit 1.
Buying the power is designed to help Microsoft meet its commitment to be “carbon negative” by 2030. Microsoft wouldn't say which of its data centers will be powered by the nuclear plant, but the mid-Atlantic electricity grid spans from Virginia, a data center hub for Microsoft and other tech giants, to Ohio, where Microsoft has plans for a new data center complex outside Columbus. Constellation said it hopes to bring Unit 1 online in 2028.
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