Opinion: Reopening Three Mile Island Unit 1 would re-energize Central PA

Reopening TMI Unit 1 is huge shot in the arm for PA Building Trades

News that Constellation Energy, the owner of Three Mile Island Unit 1, will be reopening the nuclear power plant is a huge shot in the arm for the 130,000 building and construction trades workers I am privileged to represent in Pennsylvania. Constellation is calling it the Crane Clean Energy Center; I call it some of the best news I’ve heard in a long time.

TMI Unit 1 is the plant that operated with incredible efficiency and a clean safety record for decades until uncompetitive market forces shut it down in 2019. Constellation does not own and is not reopening Unit 2, where the nuclear reactor partially melted down 45 years ago.

This is personal for me. Back when I was getting my start in the building trades, the plant gave me an opportunity as an electrician for a whole lot more man-hours to feed my family and keep a good roof over our heads. Make no mistake: When the closure was announced five years ago, it was absolutely crushing for Central Pennsylvania. TMI Unit 1 had been an anchor in the Middletown area since the 1960s, when ground was first broken. When it closed, it felt like we had lost the soul of our community.

People don’t realize that in addition to the 600 to 700 full-time employees at the plant, nuclear power stations require refueling outages every 18 months or so. Those 3-to-4-week outages help to support well over a thousand craftsmen, from electricians and boilermakers to pipefitters and insulators who flock to the plant. They also fill up local hotels, restaurants and gas stations.

If you truly want to know the economic impact of the Crane Clean Energy Center, take a look at the numbers from The Brattle Group. These are independent economic experts who I asked to study what the economic and jobs impact would be. It’s staggering.

Brattle economists found that 20 years of operations would add $16 billion to Pennsylvania’s GDP, 3,400 new jobs and $3.6 billion in estimated tax revenue. Think of the positive impacts to the local school districts, local charities and regional service businesses. That doesn’t even factor the massive lowering of carbon emissions by bringing carbon-free nuclear energy back online.

As the leader of the Pennsylvania State Building and Construction Trades Council, I think what I’m most excited about is what this project will mean for the next generation of craftsmen. These are the men and women who have shaped the skylines across Pennsylvania, who build everything from energy plants and hospitals to high-rise apartments and hotels.

The new Crane Clean Energy Center will give our workers the best opportunity to truly have a middle-class living, making good money with great benefits – something they can all be proud of. It will mean more people getting into the trades because they know jobs will be waiting for them. They can be proud not only because they can support their families, but also because they’re helping to build something that will keep our planet healthier with carbon-free nuclear power. I like to say this is a golden opportunity right in the middle of the Susquehanna River.

The experts at Brattle told us something else: restarting the reactor will also support a new wave of technology investment and innovation as manufacturing and digital economy firms like Microsoft look to establish operations in the state.

We all know that the policy decision that allowed TMI to close in the first place was a mistake. One nonpartisan Pennsylvania government report called the closure “a preventable and potentially wasteful use of energy infrastructure.” The PA State Building Trades have felt that way all along. That’s why we commissioned the Brattle report, so that now everyone clearly understands why this project is so important: thousands of good-paying union jobs. We are eager to work with Constellation to power up the Crane Clean Energy Center.