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Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Constellation said Friday the company has a 20-year deal with Microsoft to restore the Three Mile Island's Unit 1 nuclear power reactor in Pennsylvania, the site of an infamous nuclear power meltdown. The deal to restart Three Mile Island Unit 1 will create 835 megawatts of carbon-free energy, create 3,400 jobs and send more than $3 billion in tax revenue to state and local governments, Constellation said in a statement.
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"Before it was prematurely shuttered due to poor economics, this plant was among the safest and most reliable nuclear plants on the grid, and we look forward to bringing it back with a new name and a renewed mission to serve as an economic engine for Pennsylvania," Constellation CEO and President Joe Dominguez said.
Three Mile Island will be renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center.
"This agreement is a major milestone in Microsoft's efforts to help decarbonize the grid in support of our commitment to become carbon negative," Microsoft VP of Energy Bobby Hollis said in a statement.
"Microsoft continues to collaborate with energy providers to develop carbon-free energy sources to help meet the grids' capacity and reliability needs."
Constellation's Microsoft deal will restart the Unit 1 reactor, which is a fully independent facility.
It is, however, adjacent to TMI Unit 2, which shut down in 1979 and is in the process of being decommissioned by its owner, Energy Solutions.
Reactor 2 at Three Mile Island overheated in a 1979 meltdown of part of the core after a valve became stuck, prompting a nuclear power emergency that forced the evacuation of thousands of people.
Radioactive releases from that meltdown had no detectable health effects on plant workers or the public, but that reactor was never reactivated and cleanup lasted into the 1990s.
Anti-nuclear power groups "No Nukes Pennsylvania" and "Three Mile Island Alert" went to Pennsylvania's capital earlier this month to argue against restarting the Three Mile Island reactor.
They said it would cost taxpayers millions of dollars and warned that history could repeat itself if the TMI nuke plant is restarted.
Gov. Josh Shapiro said he supports the restart.
"Under the careful watch of state and federal authorities, the Crane Clean Energy Center will safely utilize existing infrastructure to sustain and expand nuclear power in the Commonwealth while creating thousands of energy jobs and strengthening Pennsylvania's legacy as a national energy leader," Shapiro said in a statement.
The Three Mile Island Unit 1 restart requires U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval after what Constellation said would be "a comprehensive safety and environmental review, as well as permits from relevant state and local agencies."
An impact study commissioned by the Pennsylvania Building & Construction Trades Council concluded that the project would create 3,400 direct and indirect jobs. The report produced by The Brattle Group said restarting the Unit 1 reactor would add $16 billion to Pennsylvania's GDP.
"The CCEC will support thousands of family sustaining jobs for decades to come. It will help make Pennsylvania a leader in attracting and retaining the types of reliable, clean energy jobs that will define the future,' Rob Bair, president of the Pennsylvania State Building and Construction Trades Council, said in a statement.
