THREE MILE ISLAND Activist protests restart Stilp urges county to join his fight against site’s reactivation

THREE MILE ISLAND
Activist protests restart 

Stilp urges county to join his fight against site’s reactivation

TOM LISI

A longtime government-reform activist known for his attention-getting props and feisty public awareness campaigns urged Lancaster County commissioners Wednesday to join him in a fight to block the planned return to operation of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.

Dauphin County-based activist Gene Stilp, who has run for office in the past as a Democrat, was clad in a business suit Wednesday with the words “NO T.M.I. RESTART” embroidered across the back of his jacket.

Stilp told the commissioners that the county government must approve new emergency preparedness plans for the plant to reopen, and they could help stop that from happening.

Baltimore-based energy giant Constellation Energy announced in September it had reached an agreement with Microsoft for the tech giant to be its sole energy customer from the facility’s main nuclear reactor, Unit 1, which shut down in 2019.

Constellation has a plan to bring the plant back online within the next three years.

“The citizens of central Pennsylvania are not Constellation Energy and Microsoft slaves,” Stilp said Wednesday. Stilp, who opposes the use of nuclear energy, argued the plant poses a safety risk to residents in the region.

Stilp was an attention-getter before social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok made attention a more universal pursuit. In 2005, he handed out stockings full of coal to Pennsylvania legislative leaders after lawmakers gave themselves pay raises.

And he is no stranger to activism against Three Mile Island: In 1999, he placed a fake historical marker near the plant commemorating the 1979 partial meltdown of one of the plant’s reactors.

Microsoft wants to use the carbon-neutral energy from Three Mile Island to power data centers connected to the region’s power grid, according to Constellation, which bought TMI in 1999.

The energy company plans to rename the plant the Crane Clean Energy Center, after a former corporate leader of Constellation, who died last year.

The plant’s second reactor, Unit 2, experienced the infamous partial meltdown in 1979 and has been decommissioned ever since.

Constellation said last year the reopening of Unit 1 would be an economic boon for the region, claiming it would create some 3,400 jobs and generate $3 billion in state and federal taxes.

Lancaster County commissioners did not respond to Stilp’s remarks at the meeting.

Democratic Commissioner Alice Yoder said via email after the meeting that the commissioners do not play a role in the restart of Three Mile Island.

“Should the plant restart, our emergency management team will follow the proper procedure to create an evacuation plan that will keep Lancaster County residents safe, as they do for all facilities in Lancaster County,” Yoder wrote. “I appreciated Mr. Stilp’s comments and plan to follow up with our Public Safety department to learn more about previous and future plans.”

Three Mile Island in Middletown is seen in this photo on April 18, 2018. Dauphin County-based activist Gene Stilp urged Lancaster County commissioners Wednesday to join him in a fight to block the planned return to operation of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.