Three Mile Island Still Feared By Americans

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Part of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant will be reopened to power some Microsoft data centers. The deal is with Constellation Energy, worth about $16 billion to Pennsylvania’s GDP. People still remember the accident that closed the location in 1979. They remember it well enough that people do not want to live near nuclear facilities

Disaster

Research shows that many Americans do not want to live near nuclear plants. Part of this is due to the meltdown of one of the cores at Three Mile Island. It was the worst of its kind in history. Although many thousands of miles away, many Americans remembered the Chernobyl disaster in 1985. These left the impression that nuclear plants could be deadly.

New Technology

The US and private enterprises may start building Small modular reactors (SMRs). These put out much less energy and use state-of-the-art safety technology. Bill Gates recently invested in one of these companies.

Microsoft and other large tech companies building AI facilities understand that traditional electricity generation will not support them. That means they have to compete with residential and legacy commercial companies for power, which would raise rates and could trigger political battles. That leaves new alternative energy installations.

Solar And Wind

Wind and solar energy may not be enough to handle the massive amount of energy AI needs. Building new coal-powered plants is not acceptable. That leaves nuclear, and people still remember Three Mile Island.