Three Mile Island (TMI) Unit 1, located in Londonderry Township, Dauphin County, in Pennsylvania, generates 852 megawatts of clean, safe and reliable electricity for more than 800,000 homes. In 2009, Three Mile Island Unit 1 received a 20 year extension to the plant's operating license from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. With license extension, Three Mile Island is well positioned to help meet the growing demand for energy well into the future as power needs across central Pennsylvania and the United States are projected to increase. The operation of Three Mile Island produces no greenhouse gas emissions and improves the air quality of the region.Kirk Condyles/ZUMA
This story was originally published by Wired and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.
For five years, reactor one at Three Mile Island nuclear power station in Pennsylvania has lain dormant. Now, thanks to a deal with Microsoft, the reactor will start running again in 2028—this time to exclusively supply the tech firm with oodles of low-carbon electricity.
It’s all part of an ongoing flirtation between Big Tech and nuclear power. In March, Amazon Web Services agreed to buy a data center powered by Susquehanna nuclear power station in Pennsylvania. At an event at Carnegie Mellon University on September 18, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai mentioned small modular nuclear reactors as one potential source of energy for data centers. The links don’t stop there either: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman chairs the boards of nuclear startups Oklo and Helion Energy.
The AI boom has left technology companies scrambling for low-carbon sources of energy to power their data centers. The International Energy Agency estimates that electricity demand from AI, data centers, and crypto could more........