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A power plant having capacity does not mean transmission lines have spare capacity. Lines may be capable of delivering power, yet substations and transformers may still be lacking. The lead time for utility-scale transformers in the U.S. has already stretched to several years. Although PJM has shortened interconnection application reviews to 1–2 years, projects must still resolve equipment procurement, construction, and permitting *after* receiving an interconnection agreement. The most conventional path remains waiting for grid expansion. It is the lowest-cost and most operationally mature option—but in hotspots like Virginia and Atlanta, timelines are becoming increasingly unpredictable. To compress timelines further, fuel cells offer an alternative. Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are modular units that do not require building a large centralized power plant; they can be installed directly adjacent to data centers, bypassing part of the transmission and interconnection process. Their drawbacks, however, include high costs, dependence on natural gas supply, and the challenge of rapidly scaling manufacturing capacity to gigawatt (GW) levels. Nuclear power sits at the opposite end of the spectrum. Restarting or extending the life of existing nuclear plants can deliver highly stable, large-scale electricity—but constructing *new* nuclear facilities takes too long to address the most urgent power shortages expected between 2027 and 2030. Solar PV plus storage can be deployed faster, but supplying 24/7 stable power to AI data centers demands significantly larger storage capacity and redundancy—making it better suited as a complementary solution rather than a simple replacement for baseload generation. Thus, today’s power shortage has essentially become a form of 'time arbitrage'. The grid may be cheapest—but requires waiting several years. Large-scale gas turbines are sufficiently powerful—but face extended equipment lead times. Reciprocating internal combustion engines can be deployed more quickly, serving as an interim stopgap. Fuel cells can even be delivered on a monthly basis—but at higher cost. Whoever can deliver electricity originally scheduled for 2029 *as early as 2027* adds a distinct layer of value amid this AI-driven power crunch. As power delivery timelines lengthen, data center siting logic is reversing: secure power first, then decide where to locate computing capacity. Computing demand won’t wait for the grid to slowly expand. GPU availability is no longer the sole bottleneck—the truly scarce resource is hundreds of megawatts—or even gigawatts—of electricity deliverable within a project’s scheduled timeline. Moreover, power infrastructure development faces another major hurdle: 71% of Americans oppose building data centers in their local communities—a level of resistance even stronger than opposition to nuclear plants. Soaring electricity bills, water competition, land use conflicts, and noise pollution are all key concerns. This year, in Monterey Park, Los Angeles County, California, residents successfully blocked plans for a hyperscale data center with a peak power draw of approximately 50 MW. Similarly, in Festus, Missouri, a $6 billion data center project failed to materialize due to voter opposition—and four local council members who supported the project were subsequently recalled. Such cases are not isolated. By contrast, even highly controversial nuclear power plants face only a 53% opposition rate. In other words, for many Americans, AI data centers have become *more unpopular than nuclear reactors*. Because the U.S. operates a deregulated electricity market, rising demand directly passes new infrastructure costs onto consumers’ electricity bills. Since 2021, U.S. electricity prices have risen roughly 40% overall—this price surge being the core driver behind public resistance. Data center commissioning = electricity price hikes. Water is similarly contentious. Data centers consume vast quantities of water for cooling. A single large facility—capped at 5 million gallons per day—translates to about 18,900 tons of water daily, equivalent to the daily water consumption of a medium- or small-sized city.

Microsoft restarts decommissioned nuclear power plants in the U.S., with all generated electricity dedicated to powering AI data centers and cloud services

Against the backdrop of surging global AI development and escalating energy demand, the U.S. nuclear industry is entering a new era of opportunity. Recent collaboration between U.S. tech giant Microsoft and nuclear power plants—as well as adjustments by the U.S. government to AI chip export policies—have drawn widespread attention to the global prospects of nuclear energy and the AI industry. Recently, Microsoft announced a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania, committing all electricity generated to powering AI data centers and cloud services. This means that, amid the AI boom, this facility—site of America’s worst nuclear accident—will be reactivated to meet soaring energy needs. In 1979, a partial meltdown occurred in one reactor at Three Mile Island—the first core-meltdown event in human nuclear history and the most severe nuclear accident ever to occur on U.S. soil. After years of dormancy, the plant, located in Pennsylvania, will resume operations under the new name 'Crane Clean Energy Center.' Three Mile Island’s revival is not an isolated case. The Palisades Nuclear Plant in Michigan is also slated for restart. The U.S. Department of Energy has pledged a conditional $1.5 billion loan to advance multiple nuclear plant restart initiatives, aiming to bring them back online by the end of 2025. Jason Kozal, Director of the Reactor Safety Division at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), stated: 'To our knowledge, this is the first such restart attempt globally.' Kozal also co-chairs the NRC oversight team responsible for supervising the Palisades restart. Since 2012, over a dozen U.S. nuclear plants have shut down—partly due to poor economic viability. In states with deregulated, volatile electricity markets, lower-cost-effectiveness nuclear plants—such as those operating only a single reactor—struggle to remain profitable. Three Mile Island exemplifies this challenge. Currently, the U.S. operates 54 nuclear plants housing 94 reactors. Globally, nuclear energy accounts for approximately 9% of total electricity generation—a share that has risen slightly in recent years. In Japan, following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, the government suspended operations at its remaining 48 nuclear plants—but is now gradually restarting them, partly to reduce reliance on imported natural gas. In contrast, Germany announced a phaseout of nuclear power in 2011 and closed its last three nuclear plants in 2023. In the U.S., as technology companies race to build massive, energy-intensive data centers to support AI systems and other applications—while simultaneously striving to meet climate commitments—the outlook for nuclear energy appears increasingly favorable. For instance, Microsoft has pledged to achieve carbon negativity by 2030; yet, to fulfill its rapidly expanding AI and cloud service requirements, nuclear energy seems unavoidable. Jacopo Buongiorno, Director of the Center for Advanced Nuclear Energy Systems at MIT, remarked: 'This further confirms the value proposition of nuclear energy—if transaction terms or pricing are favorable, it makes commercial sense.'

US Revives Shuttered Nuclear Plants to Power Data Centers Amid Rising Demand

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The U.S. Department of Energy is funding the restart of three decommissioned nuclear plants to meet data center electricity demand. Tech giants like Google and Microsoft have secured contracts for carbon-free power as the administration pushes nuclear deployment for AI.

apnews

2026-10-17

US Revives Shuttered Nuclear Plants to Power Data Centers Amid Rising Demand

US Revives Shuttered Nuclear Plants to Power Data Centers Amid Rising Demand

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