The site of the nation’s worst nuclear accident is being updated and restarted as a power source for data centers.
The Wall Street Journal reported Constellation Energy (NASDAQ: CEG) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) are partnering to reinvent Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island as the Crane Clean Energy Center. Constellation will revive the plant’s undamaged reactor and sell the power to Microsoft for use in its data centers. Microsoft signed a 20-year power-purchase agreement with Constellation, which has budgeted $1.6 billion to restart the reactor by 2028.
Bobby Hollis, vice president of energy for Microsoft, hailed the announcement as “a major milestone in Microsoft’s efforts to help decarbonize the grid.”
Three Mile Island’s undamaged 835-megawatt Unit 1 reactor has closed in 2019 due to the costs of maintaining the facility. It is adjacent to Unit 2, where a partial core meltdown in 1979 created a crisis that released radioactive gases and iodine into the environment and ultimately damaged the reputation of nuclear energy as a safe source of power.
The site’s new name is a tribute to the late Exelon CEO Chris Crane, who coordinated the spinout of Constellation from Exelon in 2022; Crane passed away in April at the age of 65.
Photo: Three Mile Island in 2019, shortly before it was closed; courtesy of Constellation / Wikimedia Commons
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