A Three Mile Island nuclear reactor is set to come back online after more than five years under a new deal between Microsoft (MSFT) and Constellation Energy (CEG).
The announcement on Friday boosted shares of the Baltimore-based energy provider by more than 20 per cent during the trading session.
Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island is notorious for one of the worst commercial nuclear accidents in U.S. history, following a partial meltdown of the Unit 2 reactor in 1979. The deal between Microsoft and Constellation would restart the neighbouring but fully independent Unit 1 reactor, which was shut down for economic reasons in 2019.
In a news release on Friday, Constellation says the power purchase deal with the tech giant is its largest ever, aiming to provide upwards of 800 megawatts to the grid when a planned energy centre comes online in 2028. For Microsoft, the agreement secures emissions-free power to help match demand in the region from its increasingly power-hungry data centres, as the company pushes harder into artificial intelligence.
“Powering industries critical to our nation’s global economic and technological competitiveness, including data centres, requires an abundance of energy that is carbon-free and reliable every hour of every day, and nuclear plants are the only energy sources that can consistently deliver on that promise,” Constellation president and CEO Joe Dominguez stated in a news release.