Microsoft’s Three Mile Island Deal Is Great News
A nuclear renaissance is long overdue for the US. Technology companies should lead the way.
Let’s do it.
Photographer: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP
At risk of understatement, let’s call it a big deal. Microsoft Corp.’s agreement with Constellation Energy Corp. to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania could prove highly consequential — for the green-energy transition and much else besides.
Constellation will invest $1.6 billion to restart one reactor at the plant — known globally as the site of an infamous meltdown more than four decades ago — while Microsoft will agree to buy 20 years’ worth of power for its data operations. “Policymakers and the market have received a huge wake-up call,” Constellation’s CEO told Bloomberg. “There’s no version of the future of this country that doesn’t rely on these nuclear assets.”