According to a report from the Washington Post, Microsoft is in the process of signing a contract to revive the infamous Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because in 1979, the Pennsylvania plant experienced a partial meltdown at one of its reactors.
The deal makes Microsoft the sole customer of the plant for 20 years, giving them 100% of the power. Why does the company need so much power? You know what? It’s for AI, and AI is notoriously power hungry. If it takes an entire nuclear power plant to get Bing to show images of Steve Urkel skateboarding in space, we’ll just have to do it. That’s the future… or whatever.
Three Mile Island Unit 1 will be reopened as the new Crane Clean Energy Center. Through a 20-year agreement, Microsoft will use energy from the refurbished plant to help align the electricity used by its PJM data centers with carbon-free electricity. 🧵
More details here⬇️https://t.co/NfKGdJgMA0 pic.twitter.com/z9ydxDXw1U
— Constellation (@ConstellationEG) September 20, 2024
Let’s take a closer look: If the deal gets approved by regulators, Three Mile Island will provide Microsoft with enough energy to power 800,000 homes. Again, no homes will get that energy, but don’t worry: Microsoft will be able to host a livestreamed event to show off some awesome new AI video generation tools and stuff.
Sorry to sound like a real cave dweller, but there is hope. This may help Microsoft make good on their promise to use zero-emission electricity for AI development. These companies are unlikely to give up on AI unless there is a decommissioned nuclear plant nearby. So this move may help alleviate some of the strain that old artificial intelligence is already putting on the power grid.
If approved, it would be the first deal of its kind for several reasons. Never before has a commercial power plant been operated exclusively for one customer. It would also be the first time a shuttered power plant has been reopened. The plant was closed five years ago for economic reasons, which is notable in no way related to the 1979 partial meltdown. Current plans call for it to be reopened by 2028.
“The energy industry shouldn’t be the reason China or Russia beat us in AI,” said Joseph Dominguez, CEO of Constellation, which owns the plant. But his chauvinistic rhetoric should be taken with a pinch of salt, because Constellation stands to make a huge profit from the deal.
Let’s do the math: A nuclear power plant averages $470 million in annual profits. Microsoft would be the exclusive buyer of this energy for 20 years, bringing the total to $9.4 billion. Constellation is spending $1.6 billion to restart the plant, in addition to federal subsidies and tax credits provided by the Inflation Recovery Act. That leaves a nice $7.8 billion profit. That’s just an estimate, but you get the point. The company has committed $1 million in “community charitable contributions” over the next five years, which amounts to $200,000 per year.
To ensure the local community can fully enjoy the economic benefits of the facility’s reopening, Constellation has committed to donating an additional $1 million in local charitable contributions over the next five years to support workforce development and other community needs.
— Constellation (@ConstellationEG) September 20, 2024
This isn’t a given. There are plenty of regulatory hurdles that Constellation must overcome, including a thorough safety inspection by the Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which has never allowed a nuclear power plant to reopen. And those aforementioned tax incentives will likely come under scrutiny, since all of the energy would go to one private company and not serve an entire region. But Steve Urkel skates in space.
On the plus side, Constellation needs about 600 employees to operate the plant, according to the New York Times. Employment is good. And the company says it won’t seek additional subsidies from the state of Pennsylvania. The Palisades Nuclear Power Plant in Michigan is also looking to reopen, but it will serve the local power grid instead of the giant maw of an AI.
