AI energy demand creates nuclear renaissance, but it's not without critics

Planned restart of Three Mile Island Unit 1 stirs controversy amid optimism

According to Constellation Energy, the plant's Three Mile Island's Unit 1 reactor will be brought back online in 2028 to supply power to data centres owned by Microsoft. EPA

There was no shortage of conjecture regarding the future of artificial intelligence in 2024, yet one aspect of AI most analysts, proponents and sceptics agree on is the amount of energy the game-changing technology requires.

By most estimates, a simple query to ChatGPT, which helped expose many more users to AI, uses 10 times more energy than a similar search on Google.

“In the training models like ChatGPT, you have lots of parameters … you have these large models with large parameters that are gobbling a lot of the energy up,” said Steven Chu, a former US energy secretary who served under president Barack Obama, during a recent speech in Abu Dhabi about AI's impact on electricity.

AI requires data centres, and those data centres need a lot of electricity, which some say will increasingly rely on a nuclear energy renaissance, especially in the US.

According to the International Energy Agency, data centres currently account for about 1 per cent of global electricity consumption, yet projections from a Goldman Sachs report indicate that by 2030 the proliferation of data centres in the US could bump that share to 8 per cent.

This need to meet the growing energy demand prompted by AI development was galvanised in recent months, with an announcement that Three Mile Island's Unit 1 nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania would be restarted as part of 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft.

“Under the agreement, Microsoft will purchase energy from the renewed plant as part of its goal to help match the power its data centres,” read a news release in part, from Constellation energy, which said described the power purchase agreement as the “largest ever”.

Besides the sheer size of the agreement, the announcement made headlines around the world for another reason.

Nuclear accident fears cast a long shadow

Three Mile Island was the site of the one of the biggest nuclear accidents in US history. In 1979, the core of the plant's Unit 2 was partially exposed, leading to a temporary evacuation of the nearby area and a lengthy clean-up.

There is still debate and continuing studies about the potential health effects stemming from the accident.

Constellation briefly touched upon the 1979 accident in its September news release.

The Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Middletown, Pennsylvania, in 1979 prompted Jimmy Carter, who was president at the time, to visit with hopes of reassuring the public that the plant was safely shut down. Photo: US National Archives

“The Unit 1 reactor is located adjacent to TMI Unit 2, which shut down in 1979 and is in the process of being decommissioned by its owner, Energy Solutions,” the Constellation said. “TMI Unit 1 is a fully independent facility, and its long-term operation was not impacted by the Unit 2 accident.”

Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro also signalled his support for the nuclear renaissance amid the news about Constellation's plan to restart TMI.

“Pennsylvania’s nuclear energy industry plays a critical role in providing safe, reliable, carbon-free electricity that helps reduce emissions and grow Pennsylvania’s economy,” he said.

Microsoft is not alone in its push to meet the energy needs of data centres. Alphabet, parent company of Google, along with Amazon, Oracle, OpenAI and other tech giants have recently expressed interest in using small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) to help meet energy needs.

Yet even though recent public polling indicates US support for nuclear energy and innovation in the sector is on the rise, it is not without critics, many of whom say there is still plenty of opposition and cause for concern amid what some have described as a nuclear energy rebirth amid the AI tech boom.

“We’re in the middle of a nuclear zeitgeist which is mindless,” said Eric Epstein, director of Three Mile Island Alert, a grass roots safe energy organisation founded in 1977, two years before the Unit 2 accident.

“You can be euphoric and you can be wildly pronuclear … but at the end of the day nuclear is an economic fiction,” he told The National, referring to federal and state subsidies that often assist the US nuclear industries.

Because of the sheer number of jobs promised by the reboot of Three Mile Island, Mr Epstein said he is not surprised by elected officials' and corporate support for the announcement, but that his group will continue to oppose anything it believes present safety problems.

President Jimmy Carter, first lady Rosalynn Carter and Pennsylvania governor Richard L Thornburgh in a control room at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in April 1979. Getty Images

“We're currently a radioactive waste site,” he said, referring to the radioactive fuel in Unit 1, which was closed in 2019, and Unit 2, the site of the accident in 1979, which is still radioactive.

“We're also an island that floods in a river that empties into the Chesapeake Bay. If you could have choreographed the worst place to put a nuclear waste site, it would be Three Mile Island.”

Mr Epstein also said that tax dollars from those who live near Three Mile Island will ultimately be spent, yet the energy created by a reopened plant will not be going to those who are helping to foot the bill.

“Starting a zombie nuclear plant to provide electricity to data centres, inanimate beings in northern Virginia, Illinois and Ohio, that's worth fighting against,” he explained.

He also critiqued Constellation's plans to change the name of the plant from Three Mile Island to Crane Clean Energy centre.

Eric Epstein, director of Three Mile Island Alert, said his group opposes efforts to restore and restart TMI Unit 1. Photo: TMI Alert

Whether or not nuclear energy should be classified as clean energy has been hotly debate for decades. Proponents point out that it is significantly cleaner than coal.

In addition, can create long-term jobs and potential economic booms for the towns in which nuclear reactors operate.

“Renewed interest in nuclear energy has spread globally as nations seek to electrify their economies to support the digital economy and address the climate crisis,” Constellation said.

“Among their many attributes, nuclear plants can reliably produce carbon-free energy 24/7 in all weather and run for up to two years without needing to be refuelled.”

Yet the shadow of radioactive fears from the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl's deadly 1986 explosion and Fukushima's 2011 disaster loom large in the minds of many as proof that nuclear is only safe on paper.

Those fears, however, are about to go up against the AI appetite for energy, and that is something not lost on Mr Epstein, who shows no sign of slowing down his efforts to raise awareness about Three Mile Island.

“AI is becoming an national obsession, which means all safeguards, all supports, all logic, will be thrown to the wind,” he said.

Constellation energy said that, pending approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Three Mile Island's Unit 1 is expected to restart in 2028.