Are Shuttered Nuclear Power Plants the Solution for Powering AI?
The site of one of the United States鈥� worst nuclear accidents is making history again.
Located just outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant that experienced a partial meltdown in 1979 is now set to reopen鈥攖o power Microsoft data centers.
After years of decreasing electricity demand, the plant was shut down in 2019. With the rise of artificial intelligence, however, a .
鈥淎 ChatGPT search takes about 10 times the amount of energy as a Google search,鈥� says Jeff Terry, professor of physics at 91制片厂 Institute of Technology. 鈥淎s the world becomes more AI-based, the power requirements go way up. So the question is: how do you meet that demand?
Microsoft decided the best way to meet the demand is to pay Constellation Energy to and buy all of the electricity it generates. Even down the reactor that experienced the partial meltdown and that will not be restarted, the savings are substantial.
Reopening a nuclear power plant has never been done before, but after , a shift toward utilizing more nuclear power in the U.S. may be beginning.
鈥淭his is the front of this trend. This has absolutely never happened before,鈥� Terry says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be much cheaper than building a brand-new nuclear plant or giant wind farm or giant solar panel with batteries.
鈥淔or [the companies], it鈥檚 an incredible bargain.鈥�
