AI-driven nuclear renaissance? Microsoft makes a deal to reopen Three Mile Island

Before TMI meant "Too Much Information", it meant "Three Mile Island". Before Fukishima and Chernobyl, there was the TMI accident. Even those who don't remember the actual events in 1979 may be aware of the TMI accident as the subject of the controversial Netflix documentary Meltdown: Three Mile Island. Closed in 2019, the TMI plant is now getting a 2^nd chance.

Background: TMI Accident and plant closure

The site of the TMI accident, Three Mile Island, is less than 100 miles from my home, and my (late) father in law was one of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) nuclear engineers who responded on site during the March,1979 crisis.

Here's how the AI at Brave Search describes the accident:

The Three Mile Island accident occurred on March 28, 1979, at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania. It was a partial nuclear meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor (TMI-2), a pressurized water reactor.

Initial Cause The accident began 11 hours earlier, during an attempt to fix a blockage in one of the eight condensate polishers, sophisticated filters cleaning the secondary loop water. This led to a series of mechanical failures, including a stuck open valve and a faulty pump, which ultimately caused a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA).

As my father in law told it, there were three primary concerns at the time: (i) planning for the possibility of large scale public evacuation; (ii) dealing with a panicking public; and (iii) dealing with the potential for a full-scale meltdown - which he said the plant's containment technology was designed to handle.

So, even though I've never been there, the power plant has a feeling of familiarity to me. I was disappointed, therefore, five years ago when the plant was shut down. The plant survived for 40 years after recovering from a nationally known accident, only to succumb to the stifling effects of modern American risk aversion, bureaucracy, and safeteyism.

This week's news: Reopening TMI as the Crane Clean Energy Center

So, it was a pleasant surprise yesterday, when I saw a series of headlines advising me that Microsoft entered into a deal with the plant's owner, Constellation, to reopen Three Mile Island. Here's one of them: Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant Will Reopen to Fuel Microsoft's AI Operations. In this article, we learn that Microsoft has agreed to buy 100% of the plant's power for the next 20 years.

This morning, I found a good video from CNBC on the topic.

Here, we learn that - pending approval from the NRC - reopening is planned in 2028, and power from the site will be used to satisfy Microsoft's growing datacenter needs - AI in particular. Continental (CEG), the owner of 20% of the nuclear capacity in the United states, will spend $1.6 billion to get the plant operational again.

And here's a video from a local news broadcast, where we learn that the plant's new name will be the Crane Clean Energy Center.

And the link for the Crane Clean Energy Center brings us to yet another video, discussing the impact that the plant closure and reopening has on the local economy. In short, the local economy suffered when TMI closed, and the local community now sees the importance of bringing this employment back to the area.

Cross-section: A nuclear renaissance?

The CNBC video also mentions another planned reopening that I wasn't aware of. The Palisades Nuclear Generating Station, in Michigan, was just shut down in 2022, but it's already slated for reopening in August, 2025. The Michigan plant reopening is also attributed to AI.

And all of this reminded me of last year's news about Terawulf Nautilus in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. This is just over 100 miles from me in a different direction, and it is the home of the United States' first nuclear powered bitcoin mining facility.

Conclusion

For years, people have been talking about the importance of affordable energy in order to meet the economic needs of the United States, and indeed, of the world. Until recently, the main drivers were said to be bitcoin mining and cloud computing. Now, AI's explosion on the scene makes the problem even more urgent.

But the culture of fear around nuclear energy has limited the availability, or even consideration, of the only known technology that can scale up to meet the requirements. As with COVID lockdowns, it seems that fear made it impossible for us to balance risks and rewards objectively.

Safety is an important consideration, but we have nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers sailing our oceans without incidents, and nuclear power plants have operated safely in most locations around the globe. Further, today's technologies are far superior to their proven counterparts from decades ago.

The fear-based response to rare accidents like TMI, Chernobyl, and Fukushima needs to be balanced against the amazing prosperity that arises for large swathes of humanity when an economy is built upon a foundation of affordable energy. As the meme says, "There's no such thing as a low-energy, rich country". If we want a prosperous society, accessible and affordable energy is a must.

Thus, I am happy to see something emerging that may represent a return to balance in the American perspective on nuclear energy. And I'm especially happy to see it emerging in Pennsylvania.

Postlogue

On the Microsoft deal

• Based on this deal, I guess we can conclude that Microsoft plans to build/expand its data center footprint somewhere near Dauphin County, PA, so in addition to the energy sector jobs, this might also be good news for technology employment in the state.

More about the TMI accident

You can read more about the TMI accident from the viewpoint of my father in law in the following sources:

• Back in 2018, @cmp2020 wrote a Steem article about his grandfather's experiences during the TMI accident, 20 Questions for an NRC Nuclear Engineer who Responded to the Three Mile Island Crisis. Here's a quote:

The public suffers primarily from fear of the unknown - and lacks knowledge of the difference between atomic bombs and nuclear power - the very great danger of the bomb being nonetheless overblown and the far lesser danger of nuclear power not being understood.

• My father in law's self-published book, Sea and Shore Stories, and the Nuclear Boogeyman: Life's Experiences and Lessons (2016), by Ebe Chandler McCabe Jr.