Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant will power Microsoft’s data center needs

A unit at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania will be restarted under a new energy-sharing agreement with Microsoft to power the data centers it operates as part of its artificial intelligence efforts.

Microsoft and Constellation Energy, Pennsylvania's largest utility, said in a joint press release that Three Mile Island's Unit 1 – a separate power plant that is not the same as the one responsible for the infamous shutdown nearly five decades ago – will be used to supply the tech giant with clean energy as the artificial intelligence arms race heats up.

Constellation shut down Block 1 in 2019 due to operating losses. Unit 2 was shut down as a result of the nuclear accident in 1979, which resulted in a partial core meltdown and the release of radioactive substances into the environment.

Studies have produced varying estimates of the number of deaths over 30 years as a result of radiation exposure. – but it is often argued that this move set America’s foray into nuclear energy back a generation.

Today, energy has become the new currency for companies investing in artificial intelligence. The data centers that perform the complex calculations required for artificial intelligence applications require enormous amounts of energy. Restarting Unit 1 means that 800 megawatts will be fed back into the grid – more than the amount of hydroelectric power provided by the Hoover Dam.

Other decommissioned nuclear power plants currently being considered for reactivation as part of the large-scale initiative to develop AI data centers are in Michigan and Iowa, while half a dozen other states are lifting the moratorium on new nuclear power plants.

Microsoft's vice president of energy touted the clean energy benefits of revitalizing the plant in a statement.

“This agreement is an important milestone in Microsoft's efforts to decarbonize the power grid and support our goal of becoming carbon negative,” said Bobby Hollis. “Microsoft continues to work with utilities to develop carbon-free energy sources that help meet the capacity and reliability requirements of power grids.”

Earlier this week, Microsoft and investment group BlackRock announced a new $100 billion initiative to develop data centers for artificial intelligence. While analysts are still debating what the AI ​​push has achieved so far, companies around the world are seeing it as the next big business opportunity.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently dismissed doubts about the usefulness of AI and compared it to the development of the industrial revolution.

“There wasn't that much industrial growth, and then it started to pick up,” he said at a recent conference. “The period from 1817 to the 1940s was just one of those golden ages in the United States.”