Do AI data centers “justify” zombie reactors & SMR new builds?!

[The Palisades nuclear power plant, on the shore of Lake Michigan in southwest Michigan. 16 million people across MI, IN, IL, and WI rely on Lake Michigan for drinking and irrigation water, and so much more.]

On December 18, 2024, S. Nicole Lane published an article in the Chicago Reader entitled “Banking on data centers: City and state officials are pitching data centers as the economic driver of the future—but at what cost?”

A number of unprecedented restarts of closed atomic reactors (at Palisades in MI, Duane Arnold in IA, and Three Mile Island in PA) have been “justified” by the claim that data center  new builds need the closed reactors’ electricity supply restored.

So-called Small Modular Reactor new builds, including in Illinois, have similarly been “justified” due to the supposed need for electricity of proposed data center.

The Chicago Reader article reported:

The Palisades nuclear power plant in Michigan is likewise slated to reopen in October 2025. It was once called one of the worst-performing nuclear reactors in the country by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission and, in 2013, leaked 80 gallons of radioactive waste into Lake Michigan. The plant opened in 1971 and closed in 2022 after a control rod failure. Power plants typically have a lifespan of 30 years, although some operate longer; Palisades was open for 51. 

Kevin Kamps, a radioactive waste watchdog at the advocacy group Beyond Nuclear, worries that data centers are an excuse to throw caution to the wind. He says it’s “unwise, shameful, and unacceptable” to restart closed nuclear power plants, generate more nuclear waste, and gut environmental protection laws. 

Turning to nuclear, Kamps says, leaves officials to play “radioactive Russian roulette in terms of extremely high risks to safety, security, health, and the environment—as well as agriculture.” The use of both Palisades and Three Mile Island represents “direct threats to agriculture and fresh water for drinking and irrigation.”

Similarly, on December 19, 2024, Dawn Stover published an article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists (also based in Chicago) entitled “AI goes nuclear: Big tech is turning to old reactors (and planning new ones) to power the energy-hungry data centers that artificial intelligence systems need. The downsides of nuclear power—including the potential for nuclear weapons proliferation—have been minimized or simply ignored.”