The Three Mile Island Melt Up

Microsoft and nuclear plant owner Constellation have entered into an unprecedented deal to restart Three Mile Island by 2028 to power its data centers.

Microsoft will purchase as much power as possible from its 880 MW reactor over 20 years for prices rumored to be above $100 per MWh.

Most famous for its 1979 meltdown, TMI closed in 2019 because of cheap fossil fuels and tech companies refusing at the time to consider buying its electricity to meet clean energy goals.

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[literallyshaking]

It’s mandatory for nuclear advocates to have mustaches.

[Cameronmid]

God 20 minutes isnt enough time with Mark Nelson. I could listen to him for hours, he really is one of my favorite return and guests. Still a good podcast though.

[lancobear]

Marks mustache needs it's own podcast 😂

[thomasgreene]

The difference between the few hundred million dollars needed for upgrades before the decision to close the unit and the $1.6 billion to return the unit to service is probably mostly the costs of reassembling a staff, retraining them, figuring out what the licensing process and requirements are for restarting a plant that gave up its previous operating license and doing a few months of startup and commissioning tests. Had the plants done the upgrades without retiring the unit, they would have done them gradually, over say 6 to 8 years, doing them in parallel with the normal refueling outages.

To put personnel costs into perspective, the annual cost of the staff needed at an operating reactor just for routine operation and maintenance of the plant, without any special work such as major refurbishments and relicensing, is in the range of $110 to $120 million per year. Just the personnel costs of a 3 or 4 year restart effort will be quite large.

[Alex_Plante]

As anyone who has done home renovation knows, when you start digging around, you discover new unexpected problems... It will end up costing more than $1.6 billion.

[scottmedwid]

OK, now I'm kind of pissed! The existing fleet of legacy reactors has been paid for by consumers of electricity paying their electricity bills. Yeah, sure the plants get sold and resold to different management companies but they were bought and paid for by utility bill payers whether they are residential electric business, electric or industrial electric users. If a company wants to make a deal with data centers to open up closed legacy fleet machines that's one thing. it's also another thing if data center companies want to build their own nuclear power plants to provide clean electricity. But I feel the existing fleet belongs to the citizens and businesses that have been paying the bills for all these decades.

[remzo]

My new fav channel I have 3 like three tabs open to go back and watch! Thx for the content!!

[manatoa]

Great show and congratulations to Mark!

[Atomicjedi]

Amazing news! Let's hope more will follow.

[thesleuthinvestor]

Years ago I traveled to Columbia University (when it was still a University, not a Madrassa) to hear Jimmy Rogers explain his value investing methods. As I said in the back of the class, I remember how he tracked the nuclear industry presumably in the process of ruin, and pointed out where opportunities were hiding (in some bonds, if I remember). In retrospect, he hit it as close to the bottom as was humanly possible. And that's for an outsider who knew little about the industry except for what he picked up from the financials. My conclusion then (which persists): If you want to make a bundle, focus on necessary industries when they are in the dumps, and talk to insiders to learn what they think are the essential fundamentals.

[Whayles]

Well well well if it isn’t my favourite podcast

[Scoots]

Been literally 40 years we've (when we were decommissioning Shippingport PA) been consistently saying we needed to be building plants around the US while watching stupid media pushed decisions trying to stop building out and then shutting down plants. Unfortunately where we are is pretty much what we expected, except we hoped there would be some leap in wind or solar or tidal or geothermal to take up the gap. Instead it's going the other way and nuclear would be SO much cheaper now if it hadn't been essentially abandoned back then.

[happyhome]

Article on this topic in the Washington Post today. Predictably with their readership, 99% of the 1, 300 comments so far are, shall we say, unfavorable, and almost entirely (if not all, I didn’t read all, but all of the ones for which I had the patience) out of impassioned ignorance. We could hope that folks will be influenced by inflation, and the growing, insatiable US debt, expected to exceed our GDP this year. Unsustainable, yet far less painful with the availability of abundant, clean, 24/7/365 energy.

[yurialtunin]

I am so glad that USA returning for nuclear power! The only problem is industrial base. Is USA capable to produce high pressure vessels and turbines?

[blahblah-ssyk]

I've got a problem with the revenu assumption 800MWe * 24h * 42 weeks (with ~80% capacity factor) * 100$ = ~80 millions $, not 800, am I wrong here?

[clifforddicarlo]

What happens to Data Center power supply when nuclear plant needs to shut-down for re-fueling?

[bobdeverell]

Depending on the presidential outcome fracking may be back on the table in a big way. How will this impact nuclear/

[RodimusPrime]

As a local resident we dont want this. Also its not even for residents its 100 percent for useless Microsoft tech.

[dankspain]

Mark, paint the whole picture…Offshore wind in New England is 140-180USD/MWh including new grid transmission and 50-60 capacity factors vs >100USD/MWh for 80% capacity factor for refurbishing an already existing power plant and transmission. A brand new nuclear power plant in the US would be over 200 USD/MWh if it can be delivered.

[dankspain]

Mark is angry because Nuclear cannot compete with other sources of electricity in the spot market. Kicking and mocking PhDs because you cant or are not willing to understand how electricity markets work is not the way to promote nuclear.