Constellation, Microsoft Want to Restart Three Mile Island to Power Data Centers

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--As a wave of pro-nuclear sentiment grips the U.S. as the country seeks to provide reliable electric generation with minimal emissions, a recent proposal envisions the restart of one of the reactors of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania, the site of the U.S.' worst nuclear accident.

Late last week, Constellation Energy Corporation (NYSE:CEG) (Baltimore, Maryland) announced that it had signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) (Redmond, Washington) for power from Three Mile Island's Unit 1, which was not involved with the partial meltdown suffered at the plant in 1979.

Unit 2, which sits to next to Unit 1, suffered the partial meltdown in March 1979 when a cooling mechanism malfunctioned. Unit 1 was not involved in the incident, which Constellation emphasized in its press release regarding the agreement, saying that Three Mile Island Unit 1 "operated at industry-leading levels of safety and reliability for decades before being shut down" almost exactly five years ago. Constellation goes on to say, "To prepare for the restart, significant investments will be made to restore the plant, including the turbine, generator, main power transformer and cooling and control systems." When retired in 2019, the unit was providing 837 megawatts (MW) of power at maximum capacity 96.3% of the time--high by industry standards. However, the unit was retired for economic reasons when it could not compete cost-wise with other fuel types.

As the reputation of the Three Mile Island monicker is synonymous with the 1979 accident, Constellation says it will rename the facility the Crane Clean Energy Center after Chris Crane, a former chief executive officer (CEO) of Constellation's parent company and a strong advocate for nuclear power. Constellation purchased the unit in 1999.

The PPA between Constellation and Microsoft is for a 20-year period, with the plant expected to reopen in 2028. Before this happens, however, the restart plans must be submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a comprehensive safety and environmental review as well as obtain permits from relevant state and local agencies. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) Power Plant Database can click here for the plant profile.

The plant isn't Constellation's only nuclear facility in Pennsylvania. The 1,499-MW Unit 2 at the company's Peach Bottom nuclear facility in Delta, about 50 miles southeast of the Three Mile Island plant, will undergo a refueling maintenance outage in the fourth quarter of this year. Subscribers to Industrial Info's Power Project Database can click here to learn more about the project.

Three Mile Island is not the first U.S. nuclear plant to be seriously considered for a restart nor is it Microsoft's first association with nuclear power. The U.S. nuclear restart ball really started rolling earlier this year when the U.S. Department of Energy agreed to a $1.5 billion loan to help restart the 800-MW Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan. Holtec International (Jupiter, Florida) purchased the plant in 2022 from Entergy Corporation (NYSE:ETR) (New Orleans, Louisiana) with the intention to decommission it. However, with the Biden administration providing financial support for nuclear generation in the U.S., Holtec is now after the NRC's permission to restart the plant, which would make it the first nuclear plant in the U.S. to be restarted after its license has been revised to prohibit further operation. The plant could begin operating again as soon as next year. Subscribers can click here to learn more about the associated restart projects.

Former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates invested $1 billion in a small nuclear power project in Kemmerer, Wyoming, that is under review by the NRC. The plant, designed and being developed by Gates' firm TerraPower (Bellevue, Washington), will be smaller than most older, traditional reactors with a generating capacity of 345 MW. The plant in theory is safer than traditional water-cooled reactors as it will use sodium to cool the reactor's core, which significantly reduces pressure on the system caused by heated water. Gates views nuclear energy as a key means of providing power to newer, energy-intensive data centers incorporating artificial intelligence capabilities. TerraPower is expecting to invest about $4 billion in the plant, significantly less than the most recent U.S. ground-up nuclear project, Southern Company's (NYSE:SO) (Atlanta, Georgia) units 3 and 4 of the Vogtle nuclear generating in Georgia, which steadily grew its price tag to well over $30 billion. The Kemmerer plant could begin providing emissions-free power in the 2030s. Subscribers can learn more by viewing the project report.

Subscribers to Industrial Info's GMI Database can click here to view reports for all of the projects discussed in this article and click here for the related plant profiles.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking over 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).