Three Mile Island, the site of the worst nuclear disaster in American history, is going back online to pump electricity to Microsoft. The owner of the Pennsylvania power plant that suffered a partial nuclear meltdown in 1979, Constellation Energy, said yesterday that it signed a 20-year power agreement with the tech giant.

The infamous plant’s revival is a testament to the we-are-so-back sentiment in the nuclear industry. The electricity needs of EVs, domestic manufacturing, and, especially, data centers servicing the power-hungry AI boom have made its split-atom wattage attractive.

• Constellation will spend $1.6 billion to relaunch a reactor that was not damaged in the accident but was decommissioned five years ago for financial reasons.
• The company hopes to make the plant operational again by 2028—pending equipment upgrades and a green light from regulators—to pump out 835 megawatts, which would be enough to cover the electrical needs of 700,000 homes (or a bunch of ChatGPT queries).

The comeback kid

Thirteen nuclear reactors went offline in the decade leading up to 2022, as the nuclear industry suffered from bad PR from high-profile accidents and competition from natural gas and other renewable energy sources. Now, nuclear vibes are electric because tech companies have recognized the value of a 24/7 source of clean energy, and the government has been doling out subsidies.

Aside from the Three Mile Island reboot, Microsoft already has a nuclear power production contract with Constellation to offset energy used at one of its Virginia data centers.

Meanwhile, Amazon recently bought a nuclear-powered data center in Pennsylvania, and a mothballed Michigan nuclear power plant is getting a new life thanks to $2 billion from the federal government and the state. But Constellation said it won’t take government grants for the Three Mile Island project to avoid regulatory delays so it can start restoration right away.

Zoom out: Old-school nuclear plants remain expensive and take a long time to build, which is why many companies—including ones backed by Bill Gates and Sam Altman—are investing in experimental solutions like small reactors and bleeding-edge nuclear fusion projects.—SK

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Israel strikes Beirut as tensions rise. Israel’s airstrike on the Lebanese capital killed top Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Akil and 10 other Hezbollah operatives. Akil had been sanctioned by the US for his role in 1983 terrorist attacks that killed more than 300 people at a US embassy and Marine barracks. Lebanon said Israel’s attack yesterday killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens. The attack follows the deadly detonation of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah, for which the militant group vowed to retaliate against Israel. The escalation continues to raise the prospect of a regional war breaking out.

FTC sues drug middlemen over insulin prices. Gasoline isn’t the only pump price the government has been watching closely: The Federal Trade Commission hit the three largest companies that negotiate drug prices with a lawsuit claiming they’ve artificially inflated the cost of insulin for patients. The companies—UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Rx, CVS Health’s Caremark, and Cigna’s Express Scripts—together administer ~80% of all US prescriptions, the agency said. The suit alleges they increased profits by steering patients toward higher-priced insulin with bigger rebates so they could pocket the cash that drug companies gave back.

Georgia election board says ballots must be hand counted. If you were hoping to know who won the presidential election by 10pm on Nov. 5, you may be out of luck now that Georgia’s State Election Board passed a rule requiring counties to hand count ballots—likely delaying the reporting of results in the swing state by weeks. Three board members who support Republican Donald Trump voted in favor of the rule, which was opposed by the board’s Democrat and independent members, as well as by Georgia’s secretary of state and attorney general, who are both Republicans.—AR

The sneaker company with the swoosh announced this week that it’s pulling a beloved Nike vet out of retirement to replace its current captain, John Donahoe, an ex-consulting executive who was recently dubbed “The Man Who Made Nike Uncool” by Bloomberg.

Everyone is doing a backflip. Analysts and investors rejoiced at the appointment of Elliott Hill as CEO after months of urging a leadership shakeup. Employees are “jubilant,” Fast Company reported, while workers at one Nike office popped several bottles of prosecco, per Bloomberg.

Like Hill said in a message to staff after the announcement, “Things haven’t been easy.”

• Nike’s stock had been down ~25% this year prior to the announcement, mostly because of one record-bad day in June when the company warned of a coming 10% sales drop.
• That followed several years of restructuring in which Nike pulled products from retailers and prioritized direct-to-consumer sales, leaving shelf space for competitors like Hoka to exploit after IRL shopping resumed post-pandemic.
• Amidst all this, Nike failed to satisfy sneakerheads with new designs, and widespread layoffs soured morale.

Now…all eyes are on Hill to re-center sneaker innovation and team spirit and to rebuild retailer relationships once he returns on Oct. 14. Hopes are high that Hill’s popularity among former colleagues and his all-Nike career experience—he climbed from apparel intern to president of consumer and marketplace over 30 years—make him the perfect fit to pull the company out of its slump.—ML

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If Apple was expecting the new iPhone 16 to enter the smartphone market with a bang, the reality of its release has so far been more like one of those fireworks that looks like a dog pooping: novel but ultimately not exciting.

People still lined up yesterday for its official in-store release, but the newest iPhone model’s biggest selling point is something it doesn’t have yet: Apple Intelligence, the company’s promised AI.

• The first AI features are supposed to roll out with an iOS 18 update in October that will only be compatible with iPhone 16 and 15.
• The new iPhone does offer two new physical buttons, including “Camera Control,” which makes it easier to zoom and adjust focus.

US sales seem to be picking up, but the first weekend of preorder sales for iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro were ~13% lower compared to the iPhone 15, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Still, analysts at UBS cautioned investors against overreacting to what appears to be tepid early demand.

Looking ahead…a lot is hinging on Apple Intelligence and its ability to drive iPhone sales internationally, especially as competitors start to move in on Apple’s customers in China.—MM

Gun owner (and presidential candidate) Kamala Harris made headlines this week for telling Oprah Winfrey, “If somebody breaks into my house, they’re getting shot.” But she’s not the only Democrat packing heat: The Wall Street Journal reports that gun buying is on the rise among liberal Americans. In 2010, 22% of Democrats or Democrat leaners told NORC at the University of Chicago that they had a gun, but by 2022, it rose to 29%. That same year, 55% of Republicans had a gun at home, up 3 percentage points from 2010. A 2023 Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Solutions survey found that among Democrats who had bought guns since 2020, more than half were first-time buyers, while less than 25% of Republicans were. Guns were once common among Democrats, but ownership started dropping in the 1990s as firearm regulation became politically divisive. Now safety concerns appear to be spurring a rethink.—AR