US revives three shuttered nuclear plants for data centres
Summarised from 2 outlets · Updated 16 Oct, 14:32 · Archive
The United States is restarting three closed nuclear power plants to meet growing electricity demand, particularly from data centres.
The United States is making an unprecedented attempt to revive three shuttered nuclear plants to meet rising energy demand, including from large-scale data centres. No commercial nuclear reactor is known to have resumed generating electricity after beginning decommissioning, though some have restarted after long outages.
The Department of Energy is lending up to $4.4 billion to restart the Palisades Power Plant in Michigan, the Crane Clean Energy Center on Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island and the Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa. Together, the three plants will restore a combined 2.25 gigawatts of electricity, enough to power roughly 2 million homes and businesses. All three closed before their licenses expired, largely because their electricity was considered too expensive.
Two of the plants now have contracts with Big Tech companies willing to pay premium prices for large amounts of carbon-free energy for data centres. The Trump administration is pushing hard to deploy nuclear power for artificial intelligence and manufacturing. Nuclear engineering expert Todd Allen noted that restarting existing reactors is a quicker and cheaper way to increase electricity generation compared to building new large reactors.
How it is being reported
- US is reviving shuttered nuclear plants to meet growing electricity demand and to power data centersThe United States is making an unprecedented attempt to revive three shuttered nuclear plants to meet growing demand, especially from data centers.News4Jax · 16 Oct, 13:59
- US is reviving shuttered nuclear plants to meet growing electricity demand and to power data centersThe United States is making an unprecedented attempt to revive three shuttered nuclear plants to meet growing demand, especially from data centers.Clickorlando · 16 Oct, 13:59
In this story: United States · Department of Energy · Palisades Power Plant · Three Mile Island · Duane Arnold Energy Center · Trump administration
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