Feature doc revealing our 7-decade relationship with history’s most controversial power source
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The Film
Back in 2006, nuclear power was just starting to make its way back into the headlines – not as the dirty, dangerous power source that had brought about disaster at Chernobyl but as a clean, green solution to the growing problem of climate change. Back then, Vicki thought she was making a film about the comeback of nuclear power, of why and how it was happening.
Fast forward to 2016 and things look a little different. The accident at Fukushima had a major impact on global confidence in nuclear – and nowhere more so than in Germany – but other factors, particularly economic ones, have also played their part in the stuttering renaissance. Just look at the pickle the UK government and EDF are in right now over plans to build the first new nuclear power plant in Britain in over 20 years, at Hinkley Point in Somerset. But many people still fervently believe in nuclear power and the promises made for it. And yet at the same time of course, many other people remain vehemently, passionately opposed.
The Atom: A Love Affair goes behind the sensational news headlines to tell the inside story of how we got here. Combining behind-the scenes political drama with the tropes of sentimental screen romance and melodrama, the film takes us on a tragi-comic journey through the turbulent and often-forgotten history of this most controversial of energy sources, brought to life by those who were there. Covering 7 eventful decades on both sides of the Atlantic, we’ll reveal how the 1950s romantic fantasy of an atom-powered future developed into a stormy, on-off relationship whose drama continues to play out to this day. And with more and more distributed, renewable energy coming on stream each year, we ask whether this time, it really could be the end of the affair for the once mighty atom?
Read more and watch the trailer at THE ATOM: A LOVE AFFAIR – help us finish the film
