Microsoft plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant that narrowly avoided disaster

Microsoft is within the midst of a deal that might convey the notorious Three Mile Island nuclear energy plant again to life, in response to reporting by The Washington Publish. If the identify sounds acquainted, it’s as a result of the Pennsylvania plant was residence to a partial meltdown of one in every of its reactors again in 1979.

The deal would make Microsoft the plant’s sole buyer for 20 years, that means it’ll hoover up 100% of the facility all for itself. Why does the corporate want a lot juice? You’ll be able to guess. It’s for AI, which is notoriously energy hungry. Look, if it takes a complete nuclear energy plant so we are able to ask Bing to whip up a picture of Steve Urkel in house using a skateboard, then we gotta do it. It’s the long run… or no matter.

Let’s break it down additional. If this deal is accredited by regulators, Three Mile Island will present Microsoft with sufficient vitality to energy 800,000 houses. Once more, no houses will likely be getting that vitality, however don’t fear. Microsoft will be capable of maintain a reside streaming occasion to point out off some ghoulish new AI video era instruments or one thing.

I do know I’m coming off as an actual troglodyte right here, however there’s a silver lining. This might assist Microsoft meet its pledge to energy AI growth with zero emissions electrical energy. It’s not as if these corporations would hand over on AI if there wasn’t a decommissioned nuclear energy plant sitting round, so this transfer might assist alleviate a few of the pressure that’s already being positioned on our energy grid on account of ye olde synthetic intelligence.

If accredited, this is able to be a first-of-its-kind deal for a few causes. A industrial energy plant has by no means labored solely for one shopper earlier than. It’ll even be the very first time a decommissioned energy plant has come again on-line. It’s value noting that the plant shut down 5 years in the past for financial causes, which has nothing to do with the partial meltdown from 1979. The present plan is for it to renew operations by 2028.

“The vitality trade can’t be the explanation China or Russia beats us in AI,” stated Joseph Dominguez, chief government of Constellation, the corporate that owns the plant. I’d take his jingoistic language with a grain of salt, nevertheless, as Constellation stands to make an absolute boatload of money from this deal.

Let’s do some math. Yearly earnings from a nuclear energy plant averages $470 million. Microsoft would be the unique purchaser of this vitality for 20 years, which totals $9.4 billion. Constellation is spending $1.6 billion to get the plant going once more, together with federal subsidies and tax breaks supplied by the Inflation Restoration Act. This leaves $7.8 billion in candy, candy revenue. That’s only a guesstimate, however you get the gist. The corporate does promise $1 million in “philanthropic giving to the area” over the subsequent 5 years. That is $200,000 a 12 months.

This isn’t a performed deal. There are a lot of regulatory hurdles that Constellation should bounce over. This contains intensive security inspections from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Fee, which has by no means licensed a plant reopening. There’s additionally prone to be an inquiry into these aforementioned tax breaks, as all the vitality goes to at least one personal firm and never serving complete communities. However come on. Steve Urkel on a skateboard in house.

On the plus aspect, Constellation will want round 600 workers to run the plant, in response to the New York Occasions. Jobs are good. Additionally, the corporate says it gained’t be looking for any extra subsidies from Pennsylvania. The Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan can be trying to reopen for enterprise, nevertheless it plans on servicing the native grid and never the gaping maw of AI.