Just a couple of weeks ago Disney celebrated the opening of a new 270 acre solar power
facility on Walt Disney World property.
The 50-megawatt facility is reported to generate enough energy to meet the power needs for
two of the four theme parks at Disney.
It’s a fantastic development, but what if Disney wanted to do more?
What if they wanted go all out?
What if they went with the nuclear option?
Not the figurative, but the literal nuclear option.
It’s recently resurfaced in the news over the past month or two, and many outlets are
once again talking about Disney’s ability to build a nuclear power plant on property
if they wanted to.
This is true… mostly.
As with all matters this complex, it’s more than a simple yes or no, and this one in particular
dates back to the 1960’s.
When Walt Disney was still alive and working on his Florida Project, Disney World was meant
to be more than a resort.
While there were plans for an east coast Disneyland, The Magic Kingdom, the real star of the show
was going to be EPCOT.
I have video that talks about EPCOT more in depth, but the short of it is that EPCOT was
going to be an actual city of the future that utilized cutting edge design and technology.
Walt wanted it to stand as an example of what cities across the country and around the world
could eventually achieve with the right planning.
However to do that, Disney felt that they needed to be freed up from the restrictions
of government regulation.
So in 1967 Disney worked with the state of Florida to create the Reedy Creek Improvement
District which, on a local level, allowed Disney to effectively govern themselves when
it came to building and running Disney World.
Within the legislation that created Reedy Creek was section nine: powers of the district.
Under Public Utilities it granted Reedy Creek the power to own, acquire, construct and operate
everything from electric power plants to gas lines to telephone lines and “plants and
facilities for the generation and transmission of power through nuclear fission and other
new and experimental sources of power and energy.”
It was exciting for Disney to have the option, but it was that last bit about new and experimental
sources of power that really captured the spirit of what EPCOT was going to become.
However Walt unfortunately passed away just six months prior, and as the world would eventually
learn, the original concept for EPCOT would not come to fruition without his leadership.
So with the text of the legislation pretty clear, why did I say that it was mostly true?
Well the Reedy Creek Improvement District was formed in 1967, however seven years after
that Congress passed the Energy Reorganization Act of 1974 which, in turn, created the US
Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
This newly formed agency was given the federal power of overseeing multiple aspects of nuclear
energy, including the approving and distribution of nuclear reactor licenses.
As it turns out, nuclear reactors are pretty important parts of nuclear power plants.
So while Disney still maintained the power to build and operate a nuclear power facility,
at the same time they kind of didn’t.
It’s not as if Disney could just decide one day that they wanted to get into nuclear
power and then just do it.
It would still require the lengthy and difficult and most importantly, expensive process of
getting the federal approvals needed to make it actually happen.
The powers granted to Reedy Creek from the 1960’s might make it easier to get through
some of the parts of the process needed to build a plant, but ultimately it’s not a
complete freedom.
But what if they built one anyway?
With the news of their new solar facility with Origis Energy providing enough power
for two theme parks, I wondered what a nuclear facility would mean for Disney’s power needs.
Disney World does operate and feel like its own small city most of the time, but the keyword there is small.
So for an example to use, I turned to the US Energy Information Administration who listed
the RE Ginna Nuclear Power Plant in upstate New York as the smallest facility in the country.
According to the facility, as of a few years ago, they output around 5 million MWh of energy a year.
As for Disney, I have a video that breaks it down in detail, but as a whole, Disney and the Reedy Creek
Improvement District uses around 1.2 million MWh of energy every year.
So even the smallest facility would generate over four times as much power than Disney
would actually need.
Realistically speaking, the odds of Disney ever trying to build a nuclear power plant
are pretty low.
It’s an expensive endeavor and it’s one that is not without its own criticisms and
controversies in the United States today.
More importantly, it’s just… not really necessary for the amount of power Disney consumes,
which is why they’re turning their efforts to smaller and more widely accepted options
like the Origis Solar facility.
Reedy Creek’s nuclear powers, for as long as they’re around, will continue to make
for an interesting headline.
It’s unexpected and it’s strange and it’s a look back at a past.
A past that anticipated a Disney World that was going to be something far more than a
vacation destination, a past that captured Walt Disney’s own dedication to science,
and a past that was looking towards the future.