US nuclear plants won’t power Big Tech’s AI ambitions right away. Here is the reason

Constellation Energy and Microsoft plan to restart a nuclear plant on Three Mile Island, hoping to find a quick source of enough climate-friendly energy to power fast-growing artificial intelligence (AI) data centers.

US electricity generation capacity by the end of the decade could increase by about 2.4% to 2.7%, according to an analysis of the latest data available by the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), from late 2022. Data center energy consumption is expected to increase. more than doubling by 2030 to consume about 9% of the country’s total electricity.

Technology companies are scrambling to meet the increasing demand for power from data centers to powering AI. But tapping into the nuclear system involves regulatory hurdles, potential supply chain bottlenecks, sometimes strong local opposition and scrutiny from water authorities concerned with healthy reservoirs.

In March, 1979, Three Mile Island made headlines around the world with the slow meltdown of its Unit 2 reactor. The reopening program includes the Pennsylvania plant’s Unit 1 reactor, which operated safely for decades before shutting down five years ago.

The $1.6 billion plan will restart Unit 1 in 2028 to offset the energy use of Microsoft’s data center in the region. It is the latest deal between a technology company and a nuclear energy provider. In March, Talen Energy agreed to sell a data center to Amazon.com near Talen’s nuclear power plant, which operates elsewhere in Pennsylvania.

More nuclear contracts for data centers are in the works, energy industry sources said. But each nuclear-tech deal is different and comes with its own challenges.

“No one has done this before,” said Kate Fowler, global nuclear power leader at Marsh, an energy insurance broker and risk consultant, about efforts to restart Three Mile Island. “There will be challenges that come up.”

Supply chain bottlenecks have decreased since Three Mile Island closed its Unit 1 in 2019, Fowler said. For example, Washington imposed restrictions on enriched uranium following a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Obtaining licenses from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission will also be a challenge, as will negotiations with local opponents, who remember the 1979 partial meltdown.

“The NRC right now has a really full plate,” said Sola Talabi, a nuclear engineer and president of the Pittsburgh Technical Energy Risk Consultancy, noting requests for licenses for different types of reactors the agency has never considered before, including advanced modular plants and and another. reactor removed from Michigan.

Although President Joe Biden recently signed legislation to streamline the NRC’s licensing process, reviewing the pipeline of new projects in the time frames set by companies will challenge the NRC’s staff and technical resources, Talabi said.

While Constellation seeks NRC operating permits for Three Mile Island, a public comment period could extend the process. It could also take years to reconnect the project to the regional grid.

Other obstacles

Regulators may follow lengthy review processes to restart a shuttered nuclear plant, risk and energy experts say.

Even if the Talen plant works, Amazon’s data center is facing challenges at the federal level from two regulated utilities that predict they could increase transmission costs that could increase electricity bills. Talen disagrees with predictions that the community will face high energy bills or reliability issues from the data center, which could use enough electricity to power every home in New Mexico.

At Three Mile Island, restarting equipment and infrastructure that has been idle for five years could be tricky, said Edwin Lyman, a nuclear safety expert at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“A constellation should expect to face problems that will be expensive and time-consuming to fix,” said Lyman.

Three Mile Island will also need amended surface and groundwater permits, said Stacey Hanrahan, spokeswoman for the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.

“Any change request will be carefully reviewed, and the expected water needs of the system will be considered to ensure sustainability and potential negative impacts on the environment and other users,” said Hanrahan.

Talabi said four years is enough time for Constellation to deal with any technical problems at Three Mile Island, which could be major if critical components such as steam generators and reactor vessels are shut down for years.

Talabi also emphasized the importance of addressing environmental and social problems that may arise in the area, especially given the 1979 disaster.

“Perhaps more than any other place in the country, the need to engage with the community to ensure that it is acceptable to the community will be very important for us to start over,” said Talabi.

—Lila Kearney and Timothy Gardner, Reuters