Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear energy plant along the Susquehanna River near Harrisburg will soon be the first retired nuclear facility to come back online in U.S. history. This reactivation represents an ultramodern purpose: to power Microsoft’s artificial intelligence and cloud computing services for the next 20 years.
The plan demonstrates the commonwealth’s embrace of a comprehensive energy strategy, understanding both the importance of transitioning away from fossil fuels and the reality of competition with other states (and countries) for energy and for business.
In particular, this deal is a huge boon for Gov. Josh Shapiro’s “all of the above” energy strategy, and a strong signal that the Keystone State is poised to be a hospitable location for emerging energy-intensive technologies like AI. This means not just the knowledge-economy jobs and businesses typically associated with the tech sector — software developers and so on — but also the hard industries that make modern (and futuristic) computing possible.
In other words, all the advantages in energy and natural resources that made Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh in particular, a lead player in the industrial economy can make the region a lead player in the post-industrial economy — if leaders recognize the opportunity and make sound strategic decisions.
Decisions like restoring nuclear power generation at the historic, and notorious, Three Mile Island.
The facility’s Unit 1 reactor was retired in 2019 after its owners found its operation to be economically unfeasible. This came 40 years after the partial meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor, the worst nuclear disaster in U.S. history.
Now, Microsoft is proposing to reconnect the facility to the grid. It could signal the start of a nationwide nuclear re-emergence, as the need for clean energy deepens and companies eye dozens of decommissioned nuclear facilities. It’s important to remember that while state government is facilitating the re-use of Three Mile Island for private use, it will in turn make more power available on the grid for public use — applying downward pressure to prices and maintaining Pennsylvania’s competitive advantage in power generation compared to nearby states.
The reopened reactor will produce enough electricity to power roughly 700,000 homes, and the facility will run until at least 2054. With private cash leading the way and public utilities already joining in, there’s good reason to believe that Pennsylvania’s everyday energy consumers will benefit alongside recent big-tech clean energy investments.
Other projects connecting energy and tech are also advancing in Western Pennsylvania. Earlier this year, Duquesne Light received a $40 million Department of Energy grant to integrate technology from Nvidia — the largest publicly traded company in the world, whose supercomputers power ChatGPT. And starting late last year, Westinghouse began developing transportable nuclear batteries near Etna, a project that is already fostering job growth.
While the social and political implications of many AI applications remain uncertain and controversial, the demand for AI products is growing — alongside their massive energy needs. Whether Pennsylvania is in the lead or is left behind will depend in large part on the strategic vision and competence of its leaders. Reopening Three Mile Island is an encouraging sign the commonwealth is ready for the future.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via TNS
