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

Microsoft is in the midst of a deal to bring the iconic Three Mile Island nuclear power plant back to life. according to a report by The Washington Post. If the name sounds familiar, that’s because the Pennsylvania plant hosted a partial meltdown of one of its reactors. In 1979.

The deal will make Microsoft the sole customer of the plant for 20 years, meaning it will use 100 percent of all capacity for itself. Why does the company need so much juice? You can guess. This is for AI, ie famous for being power hungry. Look, if it takes an entire nuclear power plant so we can ask Bing to take a picture of Steve Urkel in space skateboarding, we should do it. This is the future… or whatever.

Let’s break this down further. If the deal is approved by regulators, Three Mile Island will provide Microsoft with enough energy to power 800,000 homes. Again, no house will receive this energy, but don’t worry. Maybe Microsoft will hold a livestream event to show off some awesome new AI video creation tools or something.

I know I sound like a real troglodyte here, but there is a silver lining. This could help Microsoft deliver on its promise to power AI development with zero-emission electricity. Unless there was a decommissioned nuclear plant around, these companies aren’t likely to give up on AI, so this move could help ease the strain already placed on our power grid by legacy AI.

If approved, this would be a first-of-its-kind deal for several reasons. A commercial power plant has never operated for just one customer before. It will also be the first time a decommissioned power plant has come back online. It should be noted that the plant stopped operating 5 years ago due to economic reasons. Partial collapse since 1979. The current plan is for it to resume operations by 2028.

“The energy industry cannot be the reason China or Russia beat us in artificial intelligence,” said Joseph Dominguez, chief executive of Constellation, which owns the plant. However, I would take his jingoistic language with a grain of salt since Constellation is sure to make a boatload of cash from this deal.

Let’s do some math. Average annual profit from a nuclear power plant 470 million dollars. Microsoft will be the exclusive recipient of this energy totaling $9.4 billion over 20 years. Constellation is spending $1.6 billion to restart the plant, along with federal subsidies and tax breaks provided by the Inflation Recovery Act. That leaves $7.8 billion in sweet, sweet revenue. That’s just a guess, but you get the point. Company He promises 1 million dollars in “philanthropy to the region” for the next five years. That’s $200,000 a year.

This is not a done deal. Constellation has many regulatory hurdles to jump over. That included intensive safety inspections by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which never allowed the plant to reopen. There may also be an investigation into the aforementioned tax breaks, since all the energy goes to one private company and does not serve all communities. But come on. Steve Urkel skateboarding in space.

On the plus side, Constellation needs about 600 workers to operate the plant. according to New York Times. Things are good. Also, the company said it will not seek any additional subsidies from Pennsylvania. There is also the Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan Looking to reopen for businesshowever, it plans to serve the local network, not AI’s loopholes.