A group of veteran community activists are planning legal action to block the reopening of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant over whether the American public approves of nuclear power funded by Big Tech and the U.S. taxpayer. Will support the rise.
Three Mile Island Alert, a group founded nearly half a century ago to lobby for the closure of the plant in Middletown, Pennsylvania — site of the worst nuclear accident in U.S. history — said the operator Constellation It will challenge the government licenses needed for the energy, which aims to restart in 2028.
The legal threat is one of several hurdles facing the utility as it races to meet the terms of a 20-year power supply deal with Microsoft. The $1.6 billion project could become a strong symbol of the revival of nuclear power in the United States.
Constellation must secure multiple regulatory approvals, train hundreds of staff and upgrade equipment at a time when nuclear supply chains are stretched. It must also convince the local community and the incoming administration of Donald Trump that the benefits of restarting the plant outweigh the risks.
“The reboot isn’t going to happen until 2028: it’s pure fantasy,” Eric Epstein, a 64-year-old former history professor and chair of TMI Alert, told the Financial Times.
“We haven’t even cleaned up Three Mile Island Unit Two, the accident site is still extremely radioactive. . . . And now we’re going to generate more nuclear waste. It’s disappointing and it’s frankly unfair.” “
TMI’s second reactor was shut down in 1979 after a partial meltdown caused a release of radiation, prompting a chaotic response from then-operator Metropolitan Edison Co. and public officials that undermined public confidence. got hurt. The plant’s first reactor was shut down in 2019 for economic reasons after the US shale revolution produced gas too cheap to compete with nuclear power.
But rising power demand from data centers, manufacturing revival and the electrification of transportation, which is forecast to double power demand over the next decade, is fueling an increase in nuclear investment. is
Big tech and the Biden administration are backing nuclear power to provide reliable 24-7 emissions-free power, insisting that the U.S. must maintain its lead in artificial intelligence technologies. is necessary
In September, Holtec International secured a $1.5bn federal loan to help fund the 2025 restart of the Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan, which had been decommissioned in 2022. Last month, Google and Amazon signed contracts with companies to build small modular reactors, a new breed of nuclear technology widely considered less risky than large-scale reactors.
The US Department of Energy is reviewing loan applications for $65 billion from companies wanting to build new reactors. Constellation is considering seeking a $1.6bn federal loan guarantee to help finance TMI’s relaunch.
NextEra, another US utility, is considering restarting a nuclear plant in Iowa that shut down in 2020.
But it’s the higher prices for emissions-free electricity that big tech is willing to pay to meet climate targets that analysts say could sustain the sector’s recovery, which in Japan in 2011 The terminal appears to be in terminal decline after the Fukushima disaster.
According to Jefferies, Microsoft is paying between $110 and $115 per megawatt for electricity under a 20-year power supply agreement. The investment bank said this is almost twice the price of standard electricity deals in the region.
Brian Hanson said, “Demand for carbon-free electricity is growing and there are people who recognize that a warming climate is a real challenge and are willing to pay to revive such projects. ready to help reduce their own carbon footprint,” said Brian Hansen, Constellation’s chief generation officer, who is managing TMI’s restart.
During a visit to TMI, Hansen, a 37-year industry veteran, insisted the company could avoid the delays and cost overruns that have plagued recent nuclear projects in Western countries.
The huge cooling towers that once played a vital role in TMI’s nuclear operations are now overgrown with weeds and need to be rebuilt.
The control room that operators once used to run Reactor No. 1, which generates enough electricity to power 800,000 homes, is a throwback to the 1970s with hundreds of levers and dials and modern power plants. There is barely a hint of common digital technologies.
But Hanson said most of the upgrades needed to restart are routine maintenance at the plant, apart from replacement of the main power transformer, which has already been ordered at a cost of $100mn.
“Not an ounce of concrete needs to be poured, not a single piece of rebar needs to be tied and not a single cable needs to be pulled: the infrastructure is here,” Hanson said.
Safety will be critical when regulators make the final decision on restarting, especially in light of the 1979 partial meltdown at reactor number two caused by technical malfunctions and human error.
The site, located 300 meters from Reactor One, is now owned by a separate company, Energy Solutions, which plans to clean up and decommission the reactor by 2052.
“The 1979 crash taught us that our standards were not right at the time,” says Hanson, adding that safety standards are now recognized as the best in the world.
Constellation’s assurances mean little to Patricia Longenecker, an 81-year-old anti-nuclear activist who lives about 3 miles from TMI and has protested the plant since the 1979 accident.
“It was like a punch in the gut,” Longinecker said when asked how she felt when Star announced her plans to reopen TMI in September. “I felt betrayed that the authorities and our government representatives would even encourage this when there were other options.”
Longinecker was one of more than 140,000 people who evacuated their homes after the crash. He believes the industry prioritizes profit over safety and notes that the U.S. still lacks a permanent nuclear waste disposal site. This means dozens of barrels of highly radioactive spent fuel are stored on site at TMI.
The Star cited a poll that found 57 percent of Pennsylvania voters supported reopening TM1. According to the company, the plant will create more than 600 permanent jobs and contribute $3.6 billion annually in taxes.
Trade unions and local businesses support reopening. “We are very excited to have these middle-class jobs,” said Joe Gusler of Pennsylvania State Building Trades, whose father helped build TMI.
“Of course, there was an incident, but everyone needs to remember that that incident was in Unit Two, and that unit never ran again.”
But several regulatory hurdles remain before TMI can restart — a point highlighted when federal regulators last week surprisingly approved the grid interconnection for an Amazon Web Services data center at the site of Talen Energy Corp’s Susquehanna nuclear power plant. Rejected the request.
The regulator was concerned that diverting large amounts of electricity from the regional grid to service the data center could undermine supply stability and increase electricity bills for consumers.
Constellation insists that the Talen-Amazon decision will not affect TMI’s deal with Microsoft, as restarting the TMI reactor brings additional power to the grid. The company also has powerful allies, including Pennsylvania’s governor, Josh Shapiro, who in September asked regulators to fast-track TMI’s interconnection to the grid.
Constellation’s Hansen is confident the company can meet Microsoft’s tight timetable to access power for its growing data center fleet.
“2028 is doable,” he said. “The delay challenge, you know, I don’t see it. I don’t.”
