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Nuclear power for AI: what it will take to reopen Three Mile Island safely

As Microsoft strikes a deal to restart a reactor at the notorious power station, Nature talks to nuclear specialists about the unprecedented process.
By
  1. Michael Greshko
Reactor operators work in the control room at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant

Operators work in the control room of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in 2018, before the facility’s last functional reactor was shut down. Caption: Michelle Gustafson/Bloomberg/Getty

Microsoft announced on 20 September that it had struck a 20-year deal to purchase energy from a dormant nuclear power plant that will be brought back online. And not just any plant: Three Mile Island, the facility in Londonderry Township, Pennsylvania, that was the site of the worst-ever nuclear accident on US soil when a partial meltdown of one of its reactors occurred in 1979.

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Nature 634, 272-273 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-03162-2

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