The Trump administration has announced a $1bn federal loan to restart the nuclear power plant at Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island, which is under contract to provide power to Microsoft’s datacenters. The facility was the site of the worst nuclear disaster in US history.
US energy secretary Chris Wright said the loan to Constellation Energy, the plant’s operator, would “ensure America has the energy it needs to grow its domestic manufacturing base and win the AI race”. Constellation signed a 20-year purchase agreement in 2024 with Microsoft to restart the 835MW reactor that shut in 2019.
The other unit at the plant, renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center, shut in 1979 after the most serious nuclear meltdown and radiation leak in US history. US power demand is rising for the first time in two decades, driven by technologies including artificial intelligence. Nuclear energy has become an option for technology companies such as Google and Meta, though critics point to the lack of permanent storage for radioactive waste.
The US Department of Energy said once Constellation’s reactor is restarted, it would power the equivalent of approximately 800,000 homes, help lower electricity costs, strengthen grid reliability and create more than 600 jobs. Constellation said the loan would lower financing costs and leverage private investment. The project is expected to come online in 2027, pending regulatory approvals.
Greg Beard, head of the energy department’s loan programs office, said Constellation is guaranteeing the loan and the structure would protect taxpayers if the project fails. Companies such as Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Amazon and Meta are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in new datacenters to support the AI boom, raising concerns about climate impact, water use and electricity bills.
