Tech Firms Sign Decades-Long Contracts with Nuclear Power Plants

Microsoft's deal to bring back online an undamaged reactor at Three Mile Island is part of a larger trend in the tech industry, where companies are signing long-term contracts with nuclear power plants. The agreements, which stretch across decades, aim to match data centers' electricity use with nuclear generation.

Microsoft's 20-year contract with Constellation supports the return of the Crane Clean Energy Center, also known as Three Mile Island Unit 1 in Pennsylvania. The reactor survived a 1979 accident and closed in 2019 due to economic reasons. Microsoft's deal is intended to help match its data centers' electricity use in the PJM regional grid with nuclear generation.

Meta has signed a similar 20-year agreement with Constellation, supporting continued operation of the Clinton Clean Energy Center in Illinois. The contract covers 1,121 megawatts and enables a 30-megawatt increase in generating capacity. Amazon has contracted for up to 1.92 gigawatts from Pennsylvania through 2042.

The contracts are significant because they put large buyers behind long operating horizons. However, the agreements cannot be added together and described as an equivalent amount of newly built nuclear generation. One restores retired capacity, one preserves existing capacity with a smaller planned increase, and one reserves output that ramps toward a contractual ceiling.