The administration of US President Donald Trump will provide Constellation Energy with a $1 billion loan to restart one of the reactors at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The energy company announced its intention to resume operation of the reactor, which was shut down in 2019, after Microsoft committed to purchasing all electricity from this 835-megawatt power plant for two decades. Constellation estimates the project cost at $1.6 billion and plans to complete the restoration work in 2028. The terms of the deal between Microsoft and Constellation have not been disclosed. Jefferies analysts have calculated that the technology company may pay between $110 and $115 per megawatt-hour over the 20-year term of the agreement. According to Lazard, this is cheaper than building a new nuclear power plant but significantly more expensive than wind, solar, and geothermal energy. Even wind and solar power plant projects equipped with industrial batteries to ensure 24/7 power supply are cheaper. Three Mile Island nuclear reactor to be restarted thanks to a billion-dollar deal with Microsoft Illustration: Sora Nevertheless, technology companies have recently shown great interest in nuclear energy, as the electricity demands for their data centers and artificial intelligence projects have sharply increased. Thus, in the summer, Meta* concluded an agreement with Constellation to purchase “clean energy attributes” from a 1.1-gigawatt nuclear power plant in the state of Illinois. The reactor being restarted at Three Mile Island is not the notorious Unit 2, which melted down in 1979. It is Unit 1, which was commissioned in 1974 and shut down in 2019 due to reduced profitability linked to the low cost of natural gas.
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