Microsoft's Three Mile Island deal: How Big Tech is snatching up nuclear power

With artificial intelligence putting a damper on its clean energy goals, Microsoft is turning to nuclear power in a first-of-its-kind exclusive deal with a nuclear plant. The massive amount of energy needed to power artificial intelligence has contributed to a resurgence of interest in nuclear power, a turn for an industry on its way out over the last decade. But with Big Tech closing in on nuclear plants, some wonder what will be left for everyone else.

The symbolism of the deal

Three Mile Island, the dormant Pennsylvania nuclear plant at the center of the Microsoft deal, became "shorthand for the risks posed by nuclear energy after one of the plant's two reactors partly melted down in 1979," said The New York Times. The other reactor operated safely for years before ultimately closing down for economic reasons five years ago. With the Microsoft deal, a "revival is at hand." Because of artificial intelligence, the tech giant needs massive amounts of electricity for its growing number of data centers, and the company has agreed to use as much power as possible from the plant over the next 20 years. The plant's owner, Constellation Energy, promises to spend $1.6 billion refurbishing the reactor, hoping to restart it by 2028 with regulatory approval. The deal marks the first time "Microsoft has secured a dedicated, 100% nuclear facility for its use," the Times said.

"The symbolism is enormous," Joseph Dominguez, the chief executive of Constellation, said to the Times. Even though Three Mile Island "was the site of the industry's greatest failure," it can now be a "place of rebirth."

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To fulfill its energy needs, Microsoft is also pursuing power from nuclear fusion, a "potentially abundant, cheap and clean form of electricity that scientists have been trying to develop for decades," said The Washington Post, although "most say [it] is still a decade or more away from generating electricity." Microsoft is ahead of the game, having signed a contract to buy fusion energy "from a start-up that claims it can deliver it by 2028."

Microsoft's new deal will help move it closer to its goals of running its global network on clean energy in 2025, said Bobby Hollis, Microsoft's Vice President of Energy, per Bloomberg. Integrating its entire product line around AI has increased cloud computing demand, "imperiling Microsoft's plans to be carbon negative by 2030," Bloomberg said. The agreement is a "major milestone in Microsoft's efforts to help decarbonize the grid," Hollis added.

AI pushes the resurgence of nuclear power

The unprecedented deal is the "latest sign of surging interest in the nuclear industry as power demand for AI soars," Bloomberg said. Over the past decade, over a dozen nuclear reactors have gone dark "in the face of increasing competition from cheaper natural gas and renewable energy." But now, the growing demand for electricity, "especially from data centers," has led many to turn to nuclear plants that can "provide carbon-free power around the clock."

"Policymakers and the market have received a huge wake-up call," Dominguez said. With the way technology moves, there is "no version of the future of this country that doesn't rely on these nuclear assets."

Unfortunately, tech's bullish approach to securing nuclear power has some experts worried there will not be enough to go around. The owners of nearly a third of the country's nuclear power plants were in talks with tech companies to meet the demands of the AI boom, The Wall Street Journal said. These deliberations could potentially "remove stable power generation from the grid while reliability concerns are rising across much of the U.S," and the electricity demand is driven up by new tech like AI, the outlet said. Instead of helping to add new green energy solutions to meet their "soaring power needs," tech companies would be "effectively diverting existing electricity resources." That could raise prices for other customers and "hold back emission-cutting goals," said the Journal.

Amazon Web Services closed a similar deal earlier this year, acquiring a data center campus connected to Talen Energy Corp.'s nuclear power plant on the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania for $650 million. The arrangement raised concerns among clean energy advocates and regulators, specifically the the state's consumer advocate, Patrick Cicero, who said he was worried about cost and reliability if big companies snatch up all the plants. "Never before could anyone say to a nuclear-power plant, we'll take all the energy you can give us," Cicero said to the Journal.