This docoumentary takes a look at the pros and cons of using nuclear energy. It takes us to different nuclear plants located around the world. Some are far safer in their security regimes than Monty Burns’s plant at Springfield. Others, like the derelict facility at Chernobyl, provide a stark picture of the dangers of the technology when something serious fails – as it went awfully close to doing at a station in Sweden some years ago, an incident that still isn’t properly understood.
Only about 16 per cent of global energy needs come from nuclear fuel generation at present. Even if more facilities are constructed in record time, it’s unlikely more than 20 per cent of all needed power will ever be delivered from nuclear sources.
Meet a guy who calls himself a pro-nuclear Green. Take a look at a waste repository and ponder the less-than scrupulous reputation for honesty that has dogged the industry for decades. As one of the biggest users of coal energy in the world, Australia is among the highest per capita emitters of carbon on the planet.
As the documentary concludes, it raises the possibility that the almost moribund nuclear fuel industry has seized on the endgame scenario of fossil fuels and, ironically, found its salvation. Are we delivering ourselves into temptation or evil? Can the renewable energy lobby present a more viable alternative?
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Released 2007. Director: Justin Pemberton
