The Three Mile Island nuclear incident is one of the most infamous examples of nuclear accidents in history, thanks to its partial meltdown in 1979.

It is often cited by people who oppose nuclear energy as a clear example of why it is not the safe and clean energy source that it is often touted as by proponents.

While this facility has been fully shut down since 2019, its owner, Constellation Energy, has announced that it is investing $1.6 billion back into the plant and will be bringing it back online by 2028.

The money for these renovations will come both from the company itself and through federal government tax breaks that were put into place by the 2022 Inflation Recovery Act.

The driving force behind restarting this nuclear power plant is Microsoft, who has signed a deal with Constellation Energy agreeing to buy all of the energy produced for the next twenty years.

The details of the contract have not been released, but it is likely that Microsoft needs this massive amount of electricity in order to power the AI data centers that it is building.

Of course, electricity is not like other resources where it can be delivered exclusively to one place (unless they run dedicated lines).

Instead, it is likely that the power plant will feed the electricity into the grid where it will be combined with power from all other sources. Microsoft will then be able to use the power at any facility that they have within a set geographical area.

Joseph Dominguez, the CEO of Constellation Energy, commented:

“This plant never should have been allowed to shut down. It will produce as much clean energy as all of the renewables [wind and solar] built in Pennsylvania over the last 30 years.”

It is important to note that the facility had two reactors in place. The one that had the partial meltdown in 1979 has been offline ever since and will remain shut down.

The one being brought online is the second reactor, which ran without issues until 2019.

As part of the process of bringing this reactor online, it will also get a new name. It will be called the Crane Clean Energy Center.

Nuclear energy offers many incredible benefits when done properly.

If you enjoyed that story, check out what happened when a guy gave ChatGPT $100 to make as money as possible, and it turned out exactly how you would expect.