A plan by Microsoft to use the restart of a Three Mile Island nuclear reactor to help power its expanding data centers reflects the tech industry's hopes nuclear energy can be a quick and climate-friendly answer to its massive electricity needs.

Companies are eyeing nuclear power as a way to reconcile their breakneck data center growth with their commitments to hit net zero carbon emissions.

The question just became concrete, after Microsoft announced last week that it had signed a deal that will reactivate a unit of the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania. Three Mile Island became shorthand for the worst case scenario of nuclear energy,