Another decommissioned nuclear power plant in the United States could be back up and running by this October. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) recently approved plans to recommission Michigan’s Palisades nuclear power plant. While more approvals are necessary to begin operations, recommissioning nuclear power plants will play a vital role in meeting America’s growing energy demand and increasing nuclear energy capacity in the U.S.
After being shut down in 2022, the 800-megawatt reactor will be repowered and upgraded with a $1.52 billion loan from the Department of Energy. However, the NRC will not vote on the recommissioning project until this coming summer.
Over the last few years, the use of AI in everyday life has grown exponentially. AI has quickly evolved and innovated to become more efficient and productive. For instance, the release of GPT 3.5 and then GPT 4 greatly improved what AI could understand and the quality of what it could answer. AI demands enormous amounts of affordable, dependable energy.
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Critically, AI-leading companies like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have set environmental goals for their respective companies. One of Google’s efforts has been making a deal with Kairos Power, where Google will purchase numerous of the small modular reactors (SMRs) that they developed.
Amazon is another company investing in nuclear energy to meet its future energy needs. Amazon Web Services is investing more than $500 million into nuclear power. In these efforts to reach net-zero carbon emissions, Amazon has signed an agreement with Dominion Energy to develop another SMR near an existing power plant in North Anna, Virginia. Microsoft is also entering the fray with a move of its own: the potential recommissioning of other nuclear power plants. The company has plans to recommission Three Mile Island Unit 1 in Pennsylvania, which is not the unit that had the partial meltdown.
Even before the rise of AI and the data centers needed for them, nuclear energy was already on a path of more acceptance. A survey conducted by Biscont Research in 2024 found that over three-quarters of the American public have supported nuclear energy over the last four years. Based on the survey, the acceptance of nuclear power within the public began to reach a healthy, consistent majority around 2000 and has grown and stayed consistent since then.
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Recommission efforts attest to this and demonstrate that the U.S. recognizes the vital importance of nuclear power in meeting both reliable electricity needs and environmental goals. With the growing reliance on AI and the rapid expansion of data centers, a future powered by nuclear energy is essential to stay competitive in the global race for energy innovation and AI.