U.S. Provides $1 Billion Loan to Restart Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant

Energy Department: "Electricity Production Must Increase for Manufacturing and AI"

The U.S. Department of Energy has announced that it will provide a $1 billion loan to Constellation Energy to restart the reactor at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania.

View of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in the United States. Photo by AP

Chris Wright, U.S. Secretary of Energy, stated in an interview with Fox News on the 18th (local time), "The United States needs to generate more electricity to reassure its manufacturing sector and to stay ahead in the artificial intelligence (AI) race."

The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant was the site of a core meltdown accident in Unit 2 in 1979. Unit 2 was permanently shut down after the accident, and Unit 1 ceased operations in 2019 due to cost issues. Previously, Constellation, the largest nuclear power company in the United States, announced last year that it would restart Unit 1, which has a capacity of 835 MW (megawatts). The company stated that the electricity generated would be sold to hyperscaler Microsoft under a 20-year long-term contract. The 835 MW capacity is enough to supply power to approximately 800,000 households.

In May, President Trump signed an executive order to foster the nuclear power industry, aiming to expand current nuclear generation capacity from about 100 GW (gigawatts) to 400 GW by 2050. This plan includes the restart of existing reactors and the construction of ten new large-scale reactors.

Restarting Unit 1 at the Three Mile Island plant requires approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).