Three Mile Island, the power plant near Middletown, Pa., that was the scene of the worst commercial nuclear accident in U.S. history, will reopen to power #Microsoft's #data_centers, which are responsible for powering the tech giant’s cloud computing and artificial intelligence programs.
Constellation #Energy, which bills itself as America’s largest producer of “clean, #carbon-free energy,” announced Friday that it had signed its largest-ever power purchase agreement with Microsoft.
“Powering industries critical to our nation’s global economic and technological competitiveness, including data centers, requires an abundance of energy that is carbon-free and reliable every hour of every day, and #nuclear_plants are the only energy sources that can consistently deliver on that promise,” said Joe Dominguez, Constellation Energy’s president and CEO.
The deal will create approximately 3,400 jobs and bring in more than $3 billion in state and federal taxes, according to the company. It also said the agreement will add $16 billion to Pennsylvania’s GDP.
The agreement will span 20 years, and the plant is expected to reopen in 2028. It will be renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center in honor of Chris Crane, who died in April and served as the CEO of Constellation’s former parent company.
“#Pennsylvania’s nuclear energy industry plays a critical role in providing safe, #reliable, #carbon_free #electricity that helps reduce emissions and grow Pennsylvania’s economy,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said.
Unlike power plants using fossil fuels, like coal or natural gas, nuclear plants do not directly release carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming.
The partial nuclear reactor meltdown at Three Mile Island happened on March 28, 1979, when one of the plant’s two reactors’ cooling mechanisms malfunctioned. The #reactor that will be reopened to power Microsoft’s data centers was not involved in the accident.
