The infamous plant, closed since 2019, is getting a new lease on life after Microsoft agreed to buy its electricity to supply a growing fleet of data centers.
In a striking sign of renewed interest in nuclear power, Constellation Energy said on Friday that it plans to reopen the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, the site of the worst reactor accident in United States history.
Three Mile Island became shorthand for the risks posed by nuclear energy after one of the plant’s two reactors partly melted down in 1979. The other reactor kept operating safely for decades until finally closing, for economic reasons, five years ago.
Now a revival is at hand. Microsoft, which needs tremendous amounts of electricity for its growing fleet of data centers, has agreed to buy as much power as it can from the plant for 20 years. Constellation plans to spend $1.6 billion to refurbish the reactor that recently closed and restart it by 2028, pending regulatory approval.
“The symbolism is enormous,” said Joseph Dominguez, chief executive of Constellation, the nation’s largest nuclear operator. “This was the site of the industry’s greatest failure, and now it can be a place of rebirth.”
Until recently, the U.S. nuclear industry seemed to be in permanent decline. Electric utilities closed 13 reactors between 2012 and 2022 in the face of competition from cheap natural gas and growing wind and solar power.
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