The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant will restart and supply electricity to Microsoft – GIGAZINE

The Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant, located in Pennsylvania, USA, was built in 1979.Unit 2 suffered a meltdown.It has been revealed that the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 will be restarted by 2028 to provide electricity to Microsoft.

Constellation to Launch Crane Clean Energy Center, Restoring Jobs and Carbon-Free Power to The Grid
https://www.constellationenergy.com/newsroom/2024/Constellation-to-Launch-Crane-Clean-Energy-Center-Restoring-Jobs-and-Carbon-Free-Power-to-The-Grid.html

Crane Clean Energy Center
https://www.constellationenergy.com/our-company/locations/location-sites/crane-clean-energy-center.html

Constellation Energy to restart Three Mile Island and sell the power to Microsoft
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/20/constellation-energy-to-restart-three-mile-island-and-sell-the-power-to-microsoft.html

Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant is equipped with two nuclear reactors, Unit 1 and Unit 2, of which Unit 2 suffered a meltdown and was shut down in 1979. Unit 1 continued to operate after that, but was shut down in 2019 for economic reasons.

Constellation Energy, a major American power company, announced that it has signed a 20-year power supply agreement with Microsoft to restart the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant’s Unit 1. It has also been announced that the name of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant will be changed to “Crane Clean Energy Center (CCEC)”.

CCEC Unit 1 is scheduled to be restarted by 2028, and is expected to be able to supply approximately 835 megawatts of electricity after restart. In addition, restarting Unit 1 will create 3,400 jobs, increase tax revenues in Pennsylvania and the United States by $3.6 billion (approximately 520 billion yen), and increase Pennsylvania’s GDP by $16 billion (approximately 2.3 trillion yen).

It is believed that the reason why Microsoft is seeking electricity is due to the “rapid increase in power consumption of AI data centers.” AI research and operation require the operation of a large number of computing chips, so data centers that perform AI-related calculations consume a huge amount of electricity. For this reason, local councils have rejected Google’s plans to build data centers, citing the possibility that the data centers could put pressure on the local power grid.

South Dublin County Council rejects Google data center plan as it doesn’t meet sustainability requirements – GIGAZINE