Microsoft is giving nuclear plant Three Mile Island a second chance to produce electricity. Until now, Three Mile Island was known for its partial nuclear meltdown in 1979, but years later, nuclear power is perceived differently. It is seen as producing clean energy because it doesn’t emit greenhouse gases, and demand is high from tech giants eager to feed their data centers, such as Microsoft, Google, Meta Platforms and Amazon Web Services.
Artificial intelligence consumes so much electricity that market intelligence firm International Data Corporation estimates data center consumption to double between 2023 and 2028, reaching 857 terawatt hours by 2028. Thus, demand for nuclear power is growing, reversing a strong downward trend.
Since 2013, 12 US nuclear plants have shuttered, but lately, their reopening has been in the news. Constellation Energy, the owner of Three Mile Island, reached an agreement with Microsoft to restart one of its dormant reactors that the meltdown did not affect. Constellation will invest $1.6 billion in the project, and Microsoft agreed to buy its electricity for 20 years.
The Three Mile Island deal follows a series of other pacts. Microsoft has signed with Ontario Power Generation in Canada and agreed to work with Helion, a nuclear fusion startup.
Amazon is also securing its electricity pipeline. In March, the giant paid $650 million for data centers that draw power from Pennsylvania’s 2.5-gigawatt Susquehanna nuclear power plant. Meanwhile, data center operator Equinix is betting its future on small modular reactors (SMRs). Earlier this year, the company signed a letter of intent to purchase power from Oklo, a Californian nuclear fusion startup backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The new partners didn’t reveal where the powerhouses would be built. They only said that SMRs would generate up to 15 megawatts of power and operate for over a decade without refueling. The SMR technology is the new frontier goal. Oracle plans to build a data center campus with three SMRs. When and where? The company didn’t give any further detail.
