U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday called restarting the nuclear reactor facility on Three Mile Island the “poster child” of President Donald Trump’s energy and artificial intelligence agenda.
Concerns that the rapid rise of data centers to power artificial intelligence systems is driving up electricity costs is a myth, according to Wright, who toured the Crane Clean Energy Center, formerly known as Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 reactor, on Wednesday.
“Steadier demand from data centers on grids is a surefire way to drive down electricity prices,” Wright told a room filled with reporters, elected officials and Constellation Energy employees. He pointed to price spikes in blue states like New York, California and Massachusetts — states he described as having “very bad energy policies.”
Last month, the Department of Energy announced it would provide a $1 billion loan to Constellation to help cover the costs of getting the reactor functioning again. Those funds were provided for by Congress under the tax and spending cuts law signed by Trump in July.
The Trump administration is sidestepping the traditional regulatory process to open at least three new nuclear test reactors before the country’s 250th anniversary on July 4, 2026. According to NPR, that haste has raised skepticism from critics about how thoroughly the projects have met long-held regulations.
Asked to respond to those concerns, Wright said his department is working with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to emphasize safety while cutting through red tape.
“The track record of nuclear … is crushingly the best safety record of any energy production technology in the world,” Wright said.
He noted that Three Mile Island is the site of the country’s worst nuclear accident in history, when Unit 2 partially melted down in March 1979.
“Nobody died. We didn’t have any serious health impacts from it, but we got scared,” Wright said. “We don’t like to see that happen.”
He said the technology failure that led to the partial meltdown would not happen in the new facility because updated technology would catch the issue beforehand.
Constellation Chief Executive Joe Dominguez said Wednesday he expects the facility to be operational in the summer of 2027, a year earlier than initially planned. He said its opening will come at a pivotal time to “power this important revolution in AI.”
Dominguez, who throughout his speech praised the Trump administration’s handling of energy policies, said the obstacle to fulfilling Constellation’s timeline is ensuring that operator PJM connects the plant to the grid.
Wright agreed to intervene — with what Dominguez called the secretary’s “relentless will” — to ensure PJM meets the timeline, though neither Dominguez nor Wright specified what form Wright’s involvement might take.
Restarting the plantConstellation closed Three Mile Island’s Unit 1 reactor in 2019 after buying it in 1999. The facility is separate from Unit 2, which is being decommissioned by its owner, Energy Solutions.
That hasn’t stopped a vocal group of Middletown residents from voicing their opposition to restarting Unit 1. They’ve said they’re skeptical of the government’s ability to adequately prepare for an emergency and the risks of potential radiation leaks.
A bipartisan slate of federal and state officials, from Trump to Gov. Josh Shapiro, is keen on using the nuclear energy at Three Mile Island to help offset the expected surge in power needed for data centers housing artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Microsoft entered into a 20-year agreement to purchase the expected 835 megawatts of energy produced annually by the Crane Clean Energy Center. That fact has also drawn the ire of some skeptics, who argue the electricity could instead be used to power an estimated 800,000 homes.