Dormant Nuclear Power Plants May Offer a Solution to A.I.’s Energy Problem

Dormant nuclear power plants across Pennsylvania, Iowa and Michigan are considering revival as the proliferation of A.I. data centers fuels a boom in power demand.

As A.I. continues to gain steam, so does the amount of electricity it consumes. A ChatGPT query needs nearly 10 times as much electricity as a Google (GOOGL) search query, according to a recent report by Goldman Sachs. To meet a soaring demand for A.I. power, some companies are looking at an unprecedented solution—the revival of dormant nuclear power plants.

Plans to reopen shuttered sites across states like Pennsylvania, Idaho and Michigan for the first time in American history are gaining traction amongst developers. While they face regulatory and financial hurdles, such reopenings could be a favorable option for companies looking to gain momentum in the A.I. race without increasing their carbon footprint.

One of the plants under consideration is Three Mile Island in Middletown, Penn., the site of the most serious nuclear power plant incident in the U.S. history. In 1979, one of the Three Mile Island’s two units experienced a partial reactor meltdown that spurred sweeping safety regulatory changes across the country. Its owner, Constellation Energy, is looking into a restart and reportedly discussing funding options with state officials and lawmakers.

The unit in question is the one not involved in the 1979 incident. “We’ve found the plant is in pretty good shape,” Joseph Dominguez, CEO of Constellation, told the Washington Post, adding that its reactors and components are in excellent condition.

A revival could help meet an unprecedented demand for data centers, which are expected to double their electricity consumption by 2030 to take up to 9 percent of the country’s power supply, according to the Electric Power Institute. Tech companies like Microsoft (MSFT), Meta (META), Google and Amazon (AMZN) are spending billions on building data centers across the U.S.—in June, Oracle revealed its intention to build some of the world’s largest data centers, while Elon Musk’s xAI unveiled plans to transform a former Tennessee manufacturing facility into a data center that can train its A.I. models.

More “zombie” nuclear plants are being considered for revival

These ambitions have coincided with a bump in carbon emissions. Google’s greenhouse gas emissions rose 48 percent between 2019 and 2023. Microsoft in May reported a 29 percent increase in emissions since 2020. Big Tech companies claim they will offset this energy consumption by pursuing carbon neutrality through wind, solar and nuclear sources. In March, for example, Amazon’s cloud unit Amazon Web Services struck a deal with Talen Energy to acquire a Pennsylvania data center powered by a nuclear power station for $650 million.

Not everyone is as enthusiastic about the prospect of nuclear plants. In the case of Three Mile Island, factors like underfunding and a lack of employees, water, fuel and equipment means that reviving its unit “is a heavy lift,” and one “driven by A.I.,” said Eric Epstein, founder of the nuclear activist group Three Mile Island Alert, in a statement to Observer. But these “marriages of A.I. with zombie plants” are only expected to become more likely, according to Epstein, in light of recent developments like Amazon’s Talen deal and the relaunch of Pennsylvania’s Nuclear Energy Caucus earlier this month.

Three Mile Island isn’t the only dormant plant that might get a facelift. NextEra Energy is considering rebooting its Duane Arnold Energy Center plant in Palo, Iowa, which it began decommissioning in 2020. “I would consider it, if it could be done safely and on budget,” John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra, told Bloomberg, adding that he expects power demand in the U.S. to rise by 40 percent by 2026. The company is “always looking at the needs of its customers and the best use of our assets, including the Duane Arnold Energy Center,” said Bill Orlove, a NextEra spokesperson, in a statement to Observer.

And over in Covert, Michican, the region’s mothballed Palisades plant could potentially reopen in the next year with state support and a $1.5 billion federal loan. Holtec International, which acquired the plant in 2022, is looking to recommission it by the end of 2025—a plan that may be incentivizing other developers to follow suit.

“We’ve obviously seen what happened with Palisades. I think that was brilliant, brilliant for the nation,” said Dominguez while speaking on Constellation Energy’s most recent earnings call when asked about a potential revival of Three Mile Island. “We’re not unaware that that opportunity exists for us.”