*

Constellation fast-tracks Three Mile Island restart for

Microsoft ( MSFT ) data centers

*

PJM expedites grid connection for select projects

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Nuclear power interest resurges amid U.S. electricity

demand

growth

(Adds comments from press event at Three Mile Island in

Pennsylvania)

By Laila Kearney

THREE MILE ISLAND, Pennsylvania, June 25 (Reuters) - The

former Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania may

restart in 2027, about a year ahead of schedule after being put

on a fast track to connect to the regional grid, executives with

the plant's owner Constellation Energy ( CEG ) said on

Wednesday.

Constellation struck a deal last September to power Microsoft ( MSFT )

data centers, paving the way to reopen Three Mile

Island, widely known as the site of a partial meltdown in 1979

that chilled the nuclear industry.

Constellation's 20-year power purchase agreement with

Microsoft ( MSFT ) is emblematic of the dramatic lengths Big Tech has

been willing to go to fuel its artificial intelligence

expansion, which began to intensify a year-and-a-half ago.

The reactor re-entering service at Three Mile Island, which

is being renamed the Crane Clean Energy Center, was not part of

the 1979 accident, and shut in 2019 for economic reasons.

"We made a mistake in shutting down this plant, but we're not

here to dwell on the past," said Constellation CEO Joe Dominguez

at an event on Three Mile Island, backed by giant cooling towers

and the nuclear plant that will be brought back as Crane.

The nuclear building is in similar shape to when it shut in

2019, and since the restart announcement, most of the work has

been around planning and hiring, Constellation said.

The company has ordered several key items for the restart,

including its main transformer and fuel. It has also restored

water systems needed to run the plant and completed various

infrastructure inspections needed for permitting approvals.

At the time of the restart announcement last year,

Constellation said it expected the plant to re-open in 2028.

Officials with the company had said they expected the process to

be slowed by wait times associated with connecting power

projects to the regional grid, which is operated by PJM

Interconnection.

"When PJM gets this connected, we're going to be ready,"

Dominguez said on Wednesday.

Despite the enthusiasm, nuclear power plant projects have

historically been far over budget and behind schedule.

No fully shut nuclear power plant has been restarted,

but at least one other attempted restart - of the Palisades

nuclear plant in Michigan - is under way.

As the technology industry drives U.S. electricity

demand to record highs, nuclear power has broadly seen a

resurgence of interest after decades in decline.

New York

plans to build a new nuclear power plant, which would be one

of the first to be constructed in a generation.

FAST-TRACKED PROJECTS

Hundreds of Constellation workers joined Wednesday's event,

along with PJM CEO Manu Asthana and Pennsylvania Governor Josh

Shapiro, who pushed for the restart to be fast-tracked for

approval through PJM.

Power projects can linger in PJM's queue, which is

essentially the application and engineering study process to

hook up a power plant to the broader grid. PJM's territory spans

13 states and the District of Columbia, covering about 67

million customers.

As a way to alleviate some of that bottleneck, particularly

as data centers rapidly proliferate on PJM's territory, the

country's largest grid operator has fast-tracked its

interconnection process for select projects.

Crane was the largest of the projects expedited by PJM, Shapiro

said.

"I am focused like a laser beam on the future of Pennsylvania

and the future runs through places right here like Crane," he

said.

More than 400 people have been hired to work at the

plant so far, and there are 30 operators who can work in control

rooms in training for the reopened plant, according to Dominguez

and other Constellation officials.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is expected to visit

Crane in July to observe the training process, they said.