Conca

In 1967, the State of Florida passed a law allowing Disney World to build a nuclear power plant.

As bizarre as that sounds, it is more of a testament to the political power of the Mouse than anything nuclear. This was 1967. The NRC, DOE and EPA were all dreams yet to come and their formation changed everything about the industry. So this law is just an interesting historical footnote.

But it is an example of how much of a visionary Walt Disney was. He was also impatient and understood how slow societies and governments move. And Walt wanted to move fast. He knew that his plan for the Park would need lots of power, lots of flexibility and lots of self-government.

As Richard Folgesong puts it, “Disney wanted protection from government regulation.” Folgesong, author of Married to the Mouse, describes how Disney had unusual political leverage because the state and local community wanted the Park very much.

Epcot was central to Disney’s particular vision for the future. Epcot, or Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, was originally built to become a city of 20,000 as a test for futuristic city planning. Designed in the shape of a circle, businesses and commercial areas would be at its center, with schools, recreational areas and community buildings around it. Residential neighborhoods would be on the perimeter.

Monorails, People Movers and small trains, would provide the main transportation on the surface within the city limits. Automobile traffic would be underground for pedestrian safety.

Pretty awesome plan.

However, Disney could not realize his vision unless he had permission from the Florida government to be autonomous. He really needed his own private municipality. So Florida created Disney’s private government and gave it the power to build roads and drains, levy taxes, issue bonds and have emergency services, powers usually reserved for a county government.

To this day, Epcot city still has a city council with a planning committee with complete authority. The rights granted to Disney by the State of Florida provides them with immunity to laws from surrounding areas, like Orlando. Disney has eminent domain authority, explaining why the vast amount of forested land surrounding Disney World has mostly gone unused.

Duke Energy

The nuclear angle was key to the futuristic plan for Epcot. Disney wanted this city to be self-reliant, and nuclear is the best way to do that. It was during an era more supportive of nuclear, more in need of big power and big dreams, and it wasn’t that long after Eisenhower’s Atoms for Peace initiative.

Disney even put out a book called “Our Friend the Atom” in 1956.

Thus, something like NuScale Power’s small modular nuclear reactor would fit right in to a vision that also includes Tomorrow Land. That’s because an SMR is the kind of thing Walt Disney himself envisioned for our future. Compact, can’t melt down, doesn’t even need to shut down to refuel, can operate for many decades, no emissions, can ramp up and down quickly to load-follow their solar and future wind farms, and is cheaper than anything except gas – there is nothing better that represents the future of power in America.

Of course, the present leadership of the Mouse’s Kingdom has no plans to build nuclear. In place of the envisioned nuclear plant, sits a gas-fired power plant.

Disney World is trying to go green. The Cinderella Castle’s holiday display of 170,000 lights has been painstakingly switched to LED lighting, reducing the amount of power needed down to that required to power four coffee pots.

They have been building a lot of solar as well as using lots of natural gas. Their new 270-acre, 50-megawatt solar farm near Epcot Center is in the shape of Mickey’s head, is made of 48,000 solar panels and is operated by Duke Energy.

NuScale

The Park consists of 48 square miles containing hundreds of buildings that include world-class hotel and conference centers, theme parks and exotic ride adventures, and precisely controlled spaces for horticulture and animal care.

Disney World’s total annual operating costs exceed $10 billion, and requires over a billion kWhs of electricity, costing about $100 million dollars a year. That’s the output of only two NuScale modules which would be the most efficient and cost-effective source for the Park. It would also be the most resilient and reliable power source in a state prone to extreme weather events and threatened by rising sea level.

It’s not like Disney World doesn’t presently use nuclear power. Florida has four nuclear reactors at two nuclear power plants run by NextEra Energy – one in St. Lucie County and one at Turkey Point in Miami-Dade County. They generate about 12% of the state’s power, some of which flows to the Magic Kingdom.

While the Kingdom is still powered mainly with fossil fuels, there is room to replace all fossil fuels at the center of Walt’s future with nuclear and renewables. He would have liked that.

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