Three Mile Island 的 1979 年事故仍主导社会认知。1979 年 3 月 28 日凌晨 4:00:36，因泵浦故障与操作失误交叠，导致只运行了三个月的机组发生部分核心熔毁。当时未出现即时死亡，但公众信任崩溃。九年间，美国取消了 67 个计划中的核电站，国内反应炉总数在 1990 年达到 112 座。如今 Constellation 尝试逆转退役流程，该电厂曾在经济原因下关停 Unit 1；当时天然气供应过剩与节能提升使需求趋平。重启方案目前依赖对仍在运行的五十余座美国核电站的经验和类比操作技能的恢复。
技术恢复集中在长期停摆设备的可用性。蒸汽发生器每台 550 吨，于 2009 年以约 6 亿美元更换，结果大部分可再用；主要更换的是 2024 年以约 1 亿美元订购的三台 250 吨变压器，旧设备因暴露而氧化损坏。工人也在加固反应炉墙体、更新冷却设施，甚至透过二级市场寻找停产控制零件。虽然小型模组化反应炉与聚变项目吸引巨额投资，但多数仍在多年后才有商用前景且部分未获监管批准，因此 AI 时代的扩张仍然仰赖既有基荷核电。Biden 提出到 2050 年使美国核电厂数量翻三倍，Trump 提议 2030 年有 10 座大机组在建，并声称以生成式 AI 可让核能许可流程提速超过 90%。
Operators at Three Mile Island train in a 1960s-style analog simulator led by Tom Carroll as Unit 2 is prepared for restart. The plant is slated to resume as Crane Clean Energy Center in mid-2027, and in Sept 2024 Constellation agreed to sell all power from its remaining 835 MW reactor to Microsoft for 20 years. AI demand is driving this revival: Google signed a 25-year PPA for the 2020-shuttered Duane Arnold plant; Amazon has a deal for Susquehanna power; and Palisades in Michigan is scheduled to reopen in 2026. The effort turns legacy infrastructure into an AI supply asset.
Three Mile Island’s 1979 accident still shapes sentiment. On March 28 at 4:00:36 a.m., pump failures and control errors combined to cause a partial core melt in a unit that had run for only three months. No immediate deaths were reported, but public trust collapsed. In nine years, 67 planned U.S. reactors were cancelled, and the national reactor count peaked at 112 in 1990. Constellation is now trying to reverse decommissioning at a plant that had shut Unit 1 for economic reasons; then, gas oversupply and efficiency gains had flattened demand. The restart now depends on recovering know-how for analog operation and on crews from the U.S. plants still running.
Technical recovery focuses on the survivability of long-idle equipment. Steam generators, 550 tonnes each, replaced in 2009 for about US$600 million, were largely reusable; the main replacements are three 250-tonne transformers ordered in 2024 for about US$100 million, after corrosion from exposure had degraded the originals. Workers also reinforce reactor walls, renew cooling structures, and even source obsolete controls parts through secondary markets. Though small modular reactors and fusion projects attract heavy investment, most remain years from commercial contribution and some still lack regulatory approval, so AI-era expansion still relies on existing baseload nuclear. Biden proposed tripling U.S. reactors by 2050, Trump proposed 10 large reactors under construction by 2030, and said generative AI could speed permitting by over 90%.