On Sept. 20, Microsoft and Constellation Energy signed a 20-year agreement to open the Unit 1 reactor at Three Mile Island near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, according to the Wall Street Journal. In 1979 the Unit 2 reactor was damaged during an accident and has remained closed ever since, but the Unit 1 reactor continued to operate for decades and its operating license is valid until 2034. However, the local utility closed Unit 1 in 2019 in order to tap into the glut of cheaper natural gas which was created as a side effect of the oil fracking boom in the 2010s.
The planned panic over the 1979 event at Three Mile Island, at which no injuries were accounted for, never mind any deaths, sparked the national shutdown of nuclear power growth in the United States.
Until recently, demand for electrical power has been flat in the U.S., but now that demand is soaring. Some of the new, largest consumers are data centers, which are attempting to lock into America’s nuclear power plants to fill its need for vast quantities of reliable power. Microsoft already has an agreement with Constellation to supply nuclear energy to its data center in Boydton, Virginia and even signed an agreement with Helion, a startup involved in fusion power research. The White House is streamlining the approval process for more data center construction. There have also been many tax deductions, loan guarantees, and other federal incentives to open or expand nuclear power. The Palisades Nuclear plant in southwest Michigan is also being reopened and there are discussions on reopening Iowa’s Duane Arnold Energy Center.
