Cheap Fallout: Nuclear Energy and Destruction (Video) (People's Century) Price

A blinding flash of light in the New Mexico desert in July 1945 hurled the world into a new era of both hope and fear, and this video examines how everyone coped with the "atomic age." The atomic bombings of Japan, which ended World War II, the nuclear standoff between the superpowers, and the controversies over nuclear power plants are examined in lively use of archival footage and first-person accounts by participants in the major events. Survivors of Hiroshima tell their painful stories, as do residents of St. George, Utah, a small town contaminated by fallout from an American atomic bomb test in the 1950s. Startling vintage films show how American GIs were used as guinea pigs in what were called "atomic maneuvers" while schoolchildren were shown cartoons instructing how to "duck and cover" in the event of an atomic attack. The dangers of nuclear power are vividly shown by scenes of the devastated reactor at Chernobyl, as well as interviews with workers who ventured inside to clean up the contamination. The benefits of nuclear power and associated technology are weighed against the costs, as shown by scenes of a Japanese atomic bomb victim who is still being treated for radiation and burn-related illnesses more than 50 years after his exposure to the Hiroshima bomb, while the narrator notes that Japan now has 49 nuclear reactors which provide power for one-third of its population. Fallout is an often provocative, yet balanced, look at the critical role the atom has played in all our lives. --Robert McNamara

ACTORS:	People's Century
CATEGORY:	Video
THEATRICAL RELEASE DATE:	01 January, 1998
MANUFACTURER:	Wgbh Boston Video
MPAA RATING:	NR (Not Rated)
FEATURES:	Color, Closed-captioned, NTSC
TYPE:	Documentary
MEDIA:	VHS Tape
# OF MEDIA:	1
UPC:	783421278936