Living with Chernobyl - the Future of Nuclear Power (2007)

 

The world's worst nuclear accident occurred in the former Soviet Union on April 26, 1986. Ukraine’s Chernobyl nuclear power plant exploded, sending radioactive debris over a large area of Northern Europe.

 

Dire predictions were made at the time about the consequences of the radioactive fallout. In 2005, to investigate these predictions, journalists Cliff Orloff and Olga Shalygin traveled to the Chernobyl Contamination Zone to talk to survivors still living there.

 

What really happened at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant following the accident? What is fact and what are myth and misconception? In 2006, the United Nations assembled a taskforce of experts, called the Chernobyl Forum, to publish a definitive report about the aftermath of Chernobyl, based on almost 20 years of historical record.

 

The scare of Chernobyl solidified America’s rejection of the nuclear power industry and has been a major force driving nuclear energy policy in the United States ever since. That may change now.

 

Fear of global warming has fractured the environmental movement on nuclear energy. Some important environmental leaders have changed positions and now endorse nuclear power. Nuclear is one of the few large-scale carbon-free energy sources, yet the very real dangers caused by our nuclear waste storage policy are still unresolved.

 

This documentary explores these issues, and the dilemmas created, in large part, by our emotional response to nuclear.