The U.S. Department of Energy is providing a $1 billion loan to finance the restart of a nuclear reactor at the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania.
This reactor, owned by Constellation Energy, will supply power to data centers for Microsoft. The loan aligns with administration priorities to bolster energy independence and support artificial intelligence growth.
For Constellation Energy, the federal loan will reduce the cost of reactivating the mothballed 835-megawatt reactor, which can power approximately 800,000 homes. The reactor had been inactive for five years before Constellation Energy announced a $1.6 billion plan to restart it, secured by a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft for its data centers.
Constellation is undertaking extensive equipment restoration and aims to bring the plant back online in 2027. This loan is part of a larger $250 billion energy infrastructure program authorized in 2022.
The Three Mile Island plant is historically significant, having been the site of the nation's worst commercial nuclear accident in 1979, which disabled one of its two reactors. The remaining functioning reactor was previously at risk of closure in 2019 due to financial losses.
The initiative to restart the nuclear reactor reflects a broader renewed interest in nuclear power as a means to ensure national energy supply, combat climate change, and meet the increasing energy demands of data centers.
