Microsoft reaches agreement to restart Three Mile Island nuclear power plant to meet AI power needs

Microsoft and Constellation Energy Corporation reached a new agreement on Friday to provide electricity to the tech giant's artificial intelligence data center, paving the way for the restart of the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania. The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant is located in Londonderry Township, south of the capital Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. In March 1979, part of the core of its Unit 2 reactor melted down, leading to a large-scale evacuation, known as the Three Mile Island accident, or TMI-2 accident. This was the most serious nuclear accident in U.S. nuclear history, classified as a level five nuclear energy accident on the International Nuclear Event Scale. After the accident, about 200,000 people near the nuclear power plant were evacuated, and residents of major U.S. cities and areas where nuclear power plants were under construction held rallies and demonstrations demanding the cessation or closure of nuclear power plants. For over 30 years, the U.S. did not build any new nuclear power plants. Constellation, headquartered in Baltimore, announced on Friday that it had reached a 20-year cooperation agreement with Microsoft to establish the "Crane Clean Energy Center" and restart Unit 1 of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The unit has been operating at industry-leading levels of safety and reliability for decades and was closed five years ago today for economic reasons. Constellation stated, "Under the agreement, Microsoft will purchase energy from the restarted nuclear power plant to help achieve its goal of using carbon-free energy to meet the power needs of its data centers."