US nuclear plant Three Mile Island to reopen to power Microsoft
TDT | Manama
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Three Mile Island, the site of America’s worst nuclear accident, will restart operations to provide power to Microsoft, US electricity company Constellation Energy announced Friday.
Microsoft will use the capability to deliver its expanding AI and cloud services, which are putting pressure on local electricity providers as tech giants build more power-hungry data centers.
The 20-year agreement involves restarting Unit 1, which “operated at industry-leading levels of safety and reliability for decades before being shut down for economic reasons exactly five years ago,” Constellation said in a statement.
Unit 1 was not involved in the 1979 partial nuclear meltdown at the Pennsylvania site.
Before its premature retirement in 2019, the plant could power over 800,000 average homes.
Microsoft will use this energy to support power grids in the mid-Atlantic states around Washington DC, a region considered an internet crossroads. Bobby Hollis, Microsoft’s vice president of energy, said that Three Mile Island’s nuclear energy will bolster a power grid covering 13 states.
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