Giant cooling towers at Constellation Energy's Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania have sat dormant for so long that grass has sprung up in the towers' hollowed-out bases and wildlife roam inside.
Armed guard stations at an entrance to the shut concrete facility, surrounded by barbed wire, sit empty. The plant, which would run so loud when operating that workers were required to wear hearing protection, is nearly silent.
"It's still eerie walking in here and it's, just, quiet," Constellation regulatory assurance manager Craig Smith said during a tour of the plant last week. Smith, who worked at Three Mile Island when Constellation shut the site’s remaining reactor in 2019, is now preparing for a restart.
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