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In September 2024, Constellation Energy announced the signing of a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft that will pave the way for the restart of Three Mile Island nuclear power plant outside Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Under the agreement, Microsoft will purchase energy from the Three Mile Island to fuel its data centers in the region.
Three Mile Island has two units. Three Mile Island Unit 2, brought on line in late 1978, had the worst nuclear accident in American history forty-five years ago in 1979 and the final cleanup of the metal core is stalled due inadequate funding.
Three Mile Island Unit 1 was brought on line in 1974. It was off-line for six years from 1979 until 1985. Pennsylvania citizens fought to keep Unit 1 shut due to what groups fighting the restart call “the insanity of running a nuclear power plant next to a completely damaged nuclear plant.”
However, in 1985 the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Pennsylvania politicians, and Pennsylvania state regulators ignored the will of local citizens, who voted overwhelmingly to keep it shut down in a non-binding referendum on May 18, 1982.
Unit 1 was finally closed in 2019 because it could not sell its power profitably.
Now after five years of being closed, Constellation Energy, Pennsylvania politicians and the nuclear industry want to reopen Unit 1 in order to serve the needs of Microsoft.
In 1979, there was a malfunction that caused a partial meltdown of Unit 2. Unit 1 was undamaged. The Three Mile Island disaster fueled an anti nuclear power movement in the United States that pretty much has slowed to a trickle the growth of nuclear power in the United States.
Harrisburg resident Gene Stilp has started a new non-profit, No TMI Restart, to help organize the coming battle against Constellation Energy and Microsoft.
“In May 2024, rumors started circulating that Constellation Energy wanted to reopen Three Mile Island,” Stilp told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview last month. “Then it came out in September that Constellation had a contract with Microsoft to sell all the energy at a higher price to Microsoft for their Virginia data centers. And it also came out that the Biden administration was going to loan Constellation Energy $1.6 billion to help with the startup of Unit 1. They are calling it the Crane Clean Energy Center. The $1.6 billion comes out of the clean energy portion of the Infrastructure Act that Congress passed a couple of years ago.”
“These energy gobbling data centers want to be located near a good source of energy. That’s why they are talking about restarting the Palisades plant in Michigan. They are also talking about bringing back Indian Point outside New York City. And a number of other places.”
“We’re seeing a trend of these nuclear power companies trying to bring these shut down reactors back online. And they are using the public relations ploy that we need to fight climate change.”
Where does Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro stand on the restart?
“Shapiro is all for this,” Stilp said. “He met with Constellation Energy and then put on a full court press to push this forward. Shapiro and all of the construction unions are pushing this forward.”
Who is for the restart and who is against?
“People aren’t thinking about this yet. So far, all of the Democrats in the legislature are for it. So are all of the Republicans. I call it the nuclear caucus in the House and Senate.”
Has anyone in the legislature spoken out against it?
“No.”
You and I grew up at a time when most people were against nuclear power.
“We are talking two generations ago now.”
It seems like most young people have bought the idea that nuclear energy is clean energy because it does not emit carbon dioxide – no fossil fuel emissions.
“They have been sold a bill of goods. Nuclear power pollutes from cradle to grave. They have come to believe that the way to fight climate change is to have nuclear power.”
What is the name of your group?
“No TMI Restart. It’s a non-profit made up of local people here in the six county region of central Pennsylvania.”
What is the argument against the restart of Three Mile Island?
“The older anti-nuclear group here is called Three Mile Island Alert. The former head of Three Mile Island Alert is Eric Epstein. He’s still involved with the legal challenges to the restart.”
“No TMI Restart is focused on the evacuation plan. Evacuation plans are impossible. And if you don’t have an evacuation plan, you can’t license a nuclear plant. For example, in the early 1980s, the Shoreham facility out on Long Island was not able to get a license because there were serious concerns about evacuating the residents of the area.”
“We are trying to defeat the restart for the same reasons. We are in the process of visiting the county commissioners in six counties and presenting the problems involved in evacuating this area.”
“And then there is the question of a foreign corporation, Constellation Energy, selling energy at a very high price to Microsoft in a contract which nobody has been able to get their hands on to study.”
“Who takes the risk? The corporation is getting all of the benefits. And the people here are taking all of the risks. Been there. Done that. And we are not going back.”
When did you begin with No Three Mile Island Restart?
“Back in the fall – we announced it at a press conference in Harrisburg. We are raising money for the non profit to fight this in a big way. It’s like organizing a citizens’ union. You have the construction unions which are all for this. We need a citizens’ union to fight it from a citizen’s perspective.”
What are the safety risks going forward?
“The facility is antiquated. It was built from 1968 to 1974. The plant is sixty years old. Constellation Energy says it will take two years to get it on line. For the specific safety problems at the plant – Eric Epstein has details. He will be filing the legal challenges.”
“I’m working on the evacuation plans, which won’t work. The Defense Logistics Agency Susquehanna is very close to Three Mile Island, right across the river. This is a logistics base that serves twenty-two forward areas of the Army. If anything happens there, there is a threat to natural security. Let’s say there is a malfunction and you have to evacuate that area. Even if you remove the people, all of the equipment there is at risk.”
“And then there is the waste. There are 700 metric tons of nuclear waste stored at the facility. The failure of the federal government to remove them to a storage facility means you have high level nuclear waste there forever.“
“Three Mile Island is right in the flight path of the Harrisburg International Airport. It’s a potential terrorist target. We’ve seen what happened on 9/11. And we’ve seen how effective drones are being used in the Ukrainian war. I don’t know if Three Mile Island has an anti-missile system. I doubt they do. It’s basically a target for terrorists.”
“You have these three plants – the Susquehanna plant 80 miles north of us, you have Three Mile Island here, and forty miles south of us is the Peach Bottom plant. The Susquehanna River is basically a nuclear high level waste river. Each of those nuclear plants has high level waste storage right there, next to the river.”
“They want to license Three Mile Island for another twenty years – so there is another twenty years of high level waste.”
“Next week I’m meeting with the Lancaster County Commissioners. The week after that, I’m meeting with the Cumberland County Commissioners. And then I met with two other counties.”
“My slogan is – who knows which way the wind blows? It’s not going to stop at the ten mile radius – the area around a nuclear power plant where people would be advised to evacuate in the event of a serious nuclear accident. But it won’t stop at the ten mile radius. The wind can blow any which way it wants.”
“As a young child, I remember seeing farmers in the Wilkes-Barre area dumping tankers full of milk into the Susquehanna River. Why? Because of the nuclear testing in Nevada. And the wind blew the radiation over to Pennsylvania, got into the grass, the cows ate the grass and their milk became radioactive.”
“You have two big corporations running the show. My other slogan is – We Are Not Constellation Energy and Microsoft Slaves. We are not their slaves. We are not going to take the risks for them. And small businesses should be asking the same question. Why should smaller corporations take the risks for these two big corporations?”
[For the complete q/a format Interview with Gene Stilp, see 39 Corporate Crime Reporter 4(12), January 24, 2025, print edition only.]
Originally Published: 2025-02-04 19:50:00
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