The Wayne County News
The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant could come back online in a few years to feed Microsoft’s need for data centers and artificial intelligence, but that is far from the only indication things are changing in the nation’s power grid.
There is so much going on with nuclear power today that what seemed like a dying industry a few years ago is heading toward recovery. Here is a partial list.
The Palisades nuclear plant in Covert Township, Michigan, has closed a $1.5 billion loan from the Department of Energy to restart operations. The plant closed two years ago for economic reasons and was in the process of being decommissioned. If it does come back online, it would be the first nuclear reactor in the U.S. to restart. Its owner, Holtec International, says it could increase the plant’s capacity by adding small modular reactors when that technology becomes feasible.
In March, cloud service provider Amazon World Services signed a contract to buy power from Talen Energy’s Susquehanna nuclear power plant in northeastern Pennsylvania for a data center next door.
In Iowa, the Duane Arnold Energy nuclear plant is being considered for reopening by by NextEra, its owner. The plant closed in 2020.
Restarting these plants will require negotiating various regulatory challenges, as this is unknown territory.
