Reopening Three Mile Island Bucks Popular Opinion

On the morning of March 28, 1979, the world awoke to news of a partial reactor meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Radioactive gases and radioactive iodine were released into the environment. It remains the worst nuclear disaster in the United States.

Three Mile Island nuclear station to reopen?

The biggest nuclear accident at the time, it came to symbolize the risk and danger of nuclear power and what happens when it is managed incompetently.

For years, the American left painted nuclear energy as a disease to be avoided at all costs.

Now, the enlightened left has found religion with “clean energy,’ which includes nuclear power. It now trains its sights on fossil fuels.

Constellation Energy, one of the world’s biggest so-called “clean energy” companies, plans to reopen Three Mile Island nuclear plant.

According to a story in The Washington Post, Three Mile Island, which has been dormant since 2019, will provide power exclusively for Microsoft. The tech giant would purchase all of its power from Three Mile Island for the next twenty years. The Post also reports that Constellation concedes the tax breaks from the Inflation Reduction Act are key to making the deal economically feasible.

This is the first time a nuclear reactor has been restarted after being decommissioned. It is also the first time that a nuclear reactor will generate energy for a single customer.

Weeks before the deal between Constellation and Microsoft was announced, Pennsylvania legislators were discussing the possibility of reopening Three Mile Island. The people of Pennsylvania are vocally protesting this move, given the age of Three Mile Island, and the cost of maintaining it.

Most voters are more than skeptical

According to a March survey by Susquehanna Polling and Research, of 501 registered voters, 47% favor nuclear energy, however 59% of Pennsylvanians oppose nuclear power in their community.

Some 52% of Pennsylvanians oppose subsidies for nuclear energy. Nearly half of those (25%) strongly oppose subsidies.

When asked if Pennsylvania should reopen Three Mile Island, 56% said “No.” Around 32% were unsure. Only 10% favored reopening Three Mile Island.

Perhaps most interesting to elected officials, a total of 49% of Pennsylvanians indicated they are less likely to vote for a state official who supports nuclear subsidies.

Big Nuclear companies such as Constellation are eager to run fossil fuel companies out of business. They want to charge more for energy delivery and are seeking to “de-carbonize” the economy. Both of these companies have benefited from billions of dollars in subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act.

No matter how good the intentions of Constellation Energy are, the company simply cannot run Three Mile Island without government subsidies. Elected officials need to beware before they commit hardworking Pennsylvanians’ tax dollars to a project that only benefits a single customer.

The memories of the 1979 meltdown still linger in Pennsylvania. The people are reluctant to risk another disaster, and polls confirm it. The decision has been made, but the opposition is clear.

This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.