The evening news caused nervousness.
There had been an accident.
It happened inside a nuclear plant located in Pennsylvania (USA).
The officials had not given full details in the news.
But people were starting to notice ‘things’.
What one government official did say was that the accident was “probably the worst nuclear accident to date”.
The year was 1979.
The radiation level inside the nuclear plant was 8 times higher than the dangerous level.
All workers leaving the plant were checked for radiation levels.
An official tried to explain to the public that the accident was not a threat to the public; that radiation levels were not a threat; and that they were monitoring the situation.
Needless to say, this was not enough for the residents living around the plant.
The governor of the state assured residents that everything was under control.
A few hours later, he changed his statement.
He asked residents living within 5 miles of the plant to evacuate.
Schools were shut. Residents were asked to stay indoors. Farmers were told to keep their animals indoors.
About half the people living in a 20-mile radius left their homes voluntarily.
What Happened?
Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station.
The nuclear plant was newly made. It had two reactors.
Reactor number 1 had started producing power in 1974.
Reactor number 2 had started producing power in 1978.
Just 3 months after that, on 28 March 1979, a valve failed leading to a water leak in reactor number 2. This water was essential in keeping the reactor’s temperature under control.
The information being shown in the control room’s dashboard was not accurate.
The workers, seeing all kinds of conflicting information on their dashboards, shut down the emergency cooling system.
From the overheating, excess steam started building up. The plant remained in a state of crisis for 5 days.
Thankfully, they managed to control the situation.
But the public was still nervous.
On April 1, 1979 — just a few days after the accident — the US President Jimmy Carter visited the plant to see the situation. Residents lined up the street to welcome him.
His visit worked.
Residents were assured that everything was indeed fine.
A few years later, the world saw a much more dangerous nuclear accident – the Chernobyl Disaster (now in Ukraine).
But in 1979, the Three Mile Island accident was the worst nuclear accident to have occurred.
Then, work to clean up the mess started.
Aftermath
Due to radiation levels, it took a long time to clean up the mess.
Work started in August 1979.
The reactor had melted beyond repair. Radioactive material was thrown everywhere.
140 tons of radioactive material were sent away for long-term storage.
The radioactive water that had leaked inside the buildings proved impractical to remove. It was left to decay further.
By 1993, the cleaning was deemed to be over.
The accident triggered many large protests and demonstrations across the US and the world.
“Nuclear energy” became a bad word.
Reactor number 1 was completely safe. It continued to generate power after the accident too.
But the public perception of nuclear power had changed. People were far more sceptical.
The regulations required to build nuclear plants increased. It became more stringent (and costly) to run nuclear plants.
This made nuclear energy more expensive.
The Three Mile Island plant was aging. It required more repair and maintenance.
It had stiff competition from cheaper power sources like natural gas and renewable energy.
Running the plant was just too expensive.
Reactor number 1 at the Three Mile Island shut down in 2019.
And that meant the end of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station.
2024
In 2024, Constellation, the company that now owns the Three Mile Island plant, announced that it was hiring and licensing operators.
And they were ahead of schedule — the plant had been cleaned up and was being refitted.
They expect to start generating power from 2028.
What changed since 2019?
Constellation signed a 20-year deal to provide power.
To whom?
Microsoft.
Tech companies are hungry for power.
Microsoft is hungry for electricity. They did not have enough of it. So they were fine paying a slightly higher price for it.
And that is how the Three Mile Island Generation Station was reborn.
Energy & Compute
The internet requires data centers and server farms.
This may sound complex to some, but these are just buildings with many computers.
These computers do everything from storing all our digital assets to running operations.
As you would imagine, more internet users means more servers and data centers are needed.
Every app you use has servers. Companies either own them, or rent them – but they have servers.
The bigger the company and the higher the number of users — the greater their need for servers and data centers.
The number of data centers and server farms is rising.
And what do they need?
They need power.
That’s practically all they need to remain functional.
They need to keep their computers running. They need to keep them cool.
Both of those require electricity.
Tech companies are now struggling to source enough energy.
They have tried to source their power from hydrogen power plants. Natural gas plants. Coal plants. Geothermal plants. Hydroelectric plants. Windmill farms. You name it.
They have tried it.
Some of the biggest companies in the world are tech companies.
More companies, more users, more products — more need for power.
It is almost fair to say, no region can produce successful large tech companies without the ability to generate vast amounts of power.
The images above were generated using AI tools.
Quick Takes
+India’s GDP growth rate rose to 6.2% annually in the Oct-Dec 2024 quarter, compared to 5.4% in the previous quarter.
+Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum, and Hindustan Petroleum will jointly construct the world’s longest LPG pipeline (2,800 km—from Kandla to Gorakhpur).
+SEBI launched a ‘Bond Central’ portal for information on all corporate bonds issued in the country.
+Domestic airplane passengers rose 11.28% annually to 1.46 crore in January. IndiGo, followed by Akasa Air, Air India, Alliance Air, and SpiceJet, reported the best on-time performance, respectively.
+Number of UPI transactions crossed 1,699 crore and Rs 23.48 lakh crore (by value) in January — highest monthly number recorded. 62% were person-to-merchant transactions and 38% were person-to-person transactions by number of transactions.
+India’s forex reserves rose by $4.76 billion to $640.48 billion in the week that ended on 21 Feb.
+AMCs must make investments within 30 days of collecting investor funds in an NFO (New Fund Offer): SEBI’s new rule.
+Tata Capital (NBFC, a subsidiary of Tata Sons) has approved an IPO. The board has also approved raising Rs 1,504 crore through a rights issue to its existing shareholders.
+India’s retail sales rose 5% annually in Jan. Food and grocery sales grew by 13%, followed by quick-service restaurants at a 6% growth. Region-wise, sales in West India grew 7%, North and South India grew 5% and East India grew 4%: Retailers Association of India survey.
+Average housing prices across the top 8 cities in India rose 10% annually in the Oct-Dec 2024 quarter. Delhi NCR had the highest growth, at 31%, followed by Bengaluru at 23%: Colliers-Credai-Liases Foras report.
+The NSE will remove BPCL and Britannia from the Nifty 50 index from 28 March. Jio Financial Services and Zomato will be added. This occurs twice a year based on size and liquidity of the stocks.
+Quality Power Electrical IPO got listed at a 1.18% gain over its issue price.
6-Day-Course
Theme of the week: types of bonds
We’ve reached the end of this week’s course that started on Monday. Here’s a test you should take. Get pen and paper!
Question 1:
Treasury bonds are issued by ________________ .
-RBI
-Central government
-Corporates
Question 2:
______________ bonds don’t have a fixed interest rate for their tenure.
-State development loans
-Government securities
-Floating rate bonds
Question 3:
There is a type of bonds under corporate bonds, that can be converted into shares of the issuing company.
-True
-False
Question 4:
Bonds that have a higher interest rates and don’t have a collateral attached to them are known as ______________ bonds.
-Secured
-Unsecured
-Convertible
Question 5:
D-rated bonds are the most risk-free type of bonds.
-True
-False
Answers:
Q1: Central government
Q2: Floating rate bonds
Q3: True
Q4: Unsecured
Q5: False
The information contained in this Groww Digest is purely for knowledge. This Groww Digest does not contain any recommendations or advice.
Team Groww Digest