Plan to restart Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear power plant announced

The rumors are a fact.

After months of suggestions and speculation, the owner of the closed Three Mile Island nuclear power plant announced today that it has decided to restart it by 2028.

The restart would only affect the island’s Unit 1 reactor, which was shut down by then-owner Exelon in 2019 because it began to lose money. Exelon said at the time that the plant’s operating costs meant its output could no longer compete with cheap natural gas flooding the energy market.

But Joe Dominguez, CEO of Constellation Energy, the successor owner, told PennLive on Thursday that rapid changes in the energy market — both in terms of increased demand in the information-age economy and concerns about the reliability of the existing grid — have made nuclear power profitable again.

First, weather events such as the 2021 Texas freeze have raised new concerns about the reliability of the power grid, which relies largely on fossil fuels and renewable energy sources.

This in turn has caused big tech companies – many of which have explicit sustainability commitments – to wonder whether they will be able to meet their needs with renewable energy sources “at all times of the day” and to show a new openness to nuclear power.

(According to a recent report from the Electric Power Research Institute, by 2030, data centers, which are powered by artificial intelligence and other technological innovations, will consume 9 percent of the electricity in the United States, more than double the current share.)

Finally, Dominguez said overall electricity demand is rising again due to a variety of factors, from the growth in the electric vehicle market to the “offshoring” of some production to other countries in response to pandemic-era supply chain issues to the fact that many American households have already taken advantage of the efficiencies that can be gained from more modern heating systems, appliances and light bulbs.

All of this has prompted Constellation to quietly take an internal look at the idle Three Mile Island facility, starting in early 2023.

“I told my leadership team, ‘We need to start thinking about restarting this reactor because the energy is going to be needed and we need to be there,’” Dominguez said.

Inspectors gave the plant good marks overall, although some significant capital investments, such as a new transformer, will be needed. Many of those capital decisions have already been made.

However, until now the company has not made any public commitments regarding the project.

For TMI, Dominguez said, things started falling into place this summer when Constellation entered into a purchase agreement with Microsoft to buy energy equivalent to all the new energy generated by the restarted reactor, which it wants to rebrand and operate under the name Crane Clean Energy Center.

Microsoft is interested because zero-emission nuclear power will help the company deliver on its own promise to replace all the energy it draws from the grid to power its data centers in the Northeast with carbon-free power.

And this, as we can see, has become another main advertising argument for nuclear power in the 21st century: the clouds of steam escaping from cooling towers are not pollutants causing climate change, but water vapour.

“This is something big.”

The $1.6 billion, massive undertaking will require approval from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and state agencies. It will also require a permit from PJM Interconnection, which monitors the power grid in 13 Mid-Atlantic and Midwestern states, to restore power to the grid.

Some context.

“That’s more energy than all the renewable energy that Pennsylvania has produced in the last 30 years,” Dominguez said. “And at a level of reliability that is the best that humanity has ever known. So that’s huge.”

Federal data confirm this.

Renewable energy, which includes solar and wind, accounted for 3.3 percent of Pennsylvania’s power generation in June, or about 730 megawatts, according to the latest data from the Federal Energy Information Administration.

Before being decommissioned, TMI had a generating capacity of 837 megawatts, which Constellation says is enough to power more than 800,000 average homes.

Dominguez said Thursday that the plant upgrade will be done entirely with Constellation money, with the possible exception of a federal loan program that could make some of the needed capital available at lower interest rates than commercial markets.

“But it’s not free money,” he stressed. “It’s just money you get at a slightly lower interest rate, and we’ll have to pay it all back.”

That’s a far cry from the proposed nuclear restart in Michigan, where state leaders have so far committed $300 million for a similar restart of the Palisades nuclear plant on the shores of Lake Michigan.

This is where the deal with Microsoft comes in.

Constellation did not disclose the financial value of the Microsoft contract on Thursday, but Dominguez made it clear: “Without Microsoft, this wouldn’t happen…Without a customer to pay for energy that simply couldn’t cross the finish line.”

Dominguez added that Constellation appreciates the opportunity to chart its own course that comes with working outside of government subsidies.

“It’s tough because we looked at other states that were much more aggressive (than Pennsylvania) in doing these things and we said, ‘Man, we wish we had this here.’ But we didn’t. So we had to face that reality and move forward,” he said.

In 2018-19, Exelon and other nuclear operators unsuccessfully campaigned for policy changes that advocates said could help keep Three Mile Island open. Earlier this year, state Senate leaders cooled on a proposal by the Shapiro administration to award unused tax credits to the company.

“We’ve talked to our employees about leading the energy transition (from fossil fuels to cleaner energy); that’s the reason people want to come to Constellation, to be a part of all of that. So it becomes more than just a financial issue.

“You want to go out and do it because that’s what leadership looks like. I hope that’s appreciated,” Dominguez said.

Will it be safe?

Harrisburg-area activists have already staged several protests against TMI’s potential reopening, a sign of the social scar left by the horrific March 1979 accident at TMI Unit 2, which still stands out as the worst commercial nuclear accident in the United States.

Unit 2 has a different owner than Unit 1 and is at a much more advanced stage of the decommissioning process.

Still, a protest at the Capitol earlier this month included women who lived near the plant at the time of the 1979 accident, speaking out about health, safety and environmental concerns about the potential reopening of the plant.

But supporters point to a poll conducted last month by Susquehanna Polling and Research Inc. in Harrisburg that found 57 percent of respondents would support reopening the Unit 1 reactor if it did not involve new taxes or higher electricity rates.

Dominguez said Thursday that his company is sensitive to the history surrounding Three Mile Island and therefore welcomes the public scrutiny he expects will accompany the relaunch process.

“We should have that discussion, and those who are interested should come to the NRC and have that fundamental discussion because we should answer every single one of their questions.”

He also argued that the nuclear industry is in much better shape than it was two generations ago.

“TMI has spawned thousands of innovations in equipment, design, processes, and all that… TMI is the reason the industry has become the best.

Ultimately, however, he expressed confidence that his company could run a better and safer facility if given the chance.

“I know it’s going to be ready to go because it’s going to be even better than the day we closed it. And then it was the best in the country,” Dominguez said. “For me, doing this at TMI is the perfect place to reinvent the industry.

“Ask us all you want about our capabilities and what we put into the plant. But don’t question our leadership, because we’re doing something here… that nobody else is doing. There are a lot of people who slap themselves on the lips and wring their hands about reliability and other things.

“I am investing $1.6 billion in central Pennsylvania to restore assets this country desperately needs.”

Economic boom

The TMI closure cost central Pennsylvania more than 600 permanent jobs at the plant, where salaries of $80,000 or more were not uncommon.

Unit 1 is currently in its own nuclear reserve state – the spent fuel has been removed from its wet storage pools and is now in dry storage on the island.

It is one of three inactive nuclear power plants in the country that are planned to be restarted.

NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan told PennLive the agency is still reviewing Holtec’s proposal to restart its Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan. In either case, Sheehan added, the restarts represent “new territory for the NRC.”

If the restart is approved, Dominguez said he expects the plant to generate power at least equal to the 834 megawatts that TMI was rated for before it closed in 2019. Constellation then plans to seek a license extension to 2054, Dominguez said.

This is music to the ears of local authorities and economic leaders.

First, one would expect the reopening to bring back 600 permanent jobs. At the time of its 2019 closure, TMI reported that its employees had an average salary of more than $80,000.

Dominguez said the island should soon see a revival in the construction industry.

Then, every two years, about 1,200 additional jobs open up for union workers during seasonal replenishment periods, allowing for a month or more of work at hourly wages starting in the mid-20s and up.

“The Crain Clean Energy Center will support thousands of family-supporting jobs for decades to come,” Rob Bair, president of the Pennsylvania State Building and Construction Trades Council, said in a Constellation news release Friday that used the proposed new name for the facility. “It will help make Pennsylvania a leader in attracting and retaining the types of reliable, clean energy jobs that will define the future.”

TMI Unit 1 has been owned by Constellation since 2022, when it was spun off from Exelon. The power company owns and operates 21 reactors across the country at 14 different sites, including Peach Bottom in York County and Limerick in Montgomery County.