Meta buys a nuclear power plant (more or less)

Meta announced Tuesday morning that it was paying billions of dollars to keep an Illinois nuclear power plant running through 2047. The social media company will buy all the “clean energy attributes” of Constellation Energy’s Clinton Clean Energy Center, a 1.1 gigawatt nuclear power plant in central Illinois, starting in June 2027. Electricity will still flow to the local grid, so Meta’s purchase won’t directly power one of its data centers, though the company does have one about two hours north of Clinton in DeKalb. Rather, the deal is a bit of carbon accounting to lower the company’s overall climate impact. It doesn’t reduce emissions on the grid, but prevents them from potentially increasing. Neither company disclosed exact financial terms, but the multibillion-dollar deal will help Constellation relicense the plant and guarantee a customer for the duration of that license extension. Big Tech companies — Meta included — have recently become vocal backers of the fission industry. ... Read full article.