The Atom: A Love Affair

With a wealth of fantastic archive footage and a series of revealing interviews with those who had first-hand experience, filmmaker Vicki Lesley tells the turbulent story of the West’s love-hate relationship with a nuclear power over the past seventy years. Capturing both the tantalising promise and the repeated disappointments of this singular technology, the film reveals how the post-war, romantic fantasy of an Atom-powered future developed into the stormy, on-off relationship still playing out today. A tale of scientific passion and political intrigue all wrapped up in the packaging of a sentimental screen melodrama.

2019

1h 32min

TMDB watch IMDb

Top Billed Cast

No Cast found

Similar movies

Bill Nye: Science Guy
Bill Nye: Science Guy
10 Apr 2017
Bill Nye: Science Guy
Bill Nye is retiring his kid show act in a bid to become more like his late professor, astronomer Carl Sagan. Sagan dreamed of launching a spacecraft that could revolutionize interplanetary exploration. Bill sets out to accomplish Sagan's mission, but he is pulled away when he is challenged by evolution and climate change contrarians to defend the scientific consensus. Can Bill show the world why science matters in a culture increasingly indifferent to evidence?
Our Mr. Sun
Our Mr. Sun
19 Nov 1956
Our Mr. Sun
One entry in a series of films produced to make science accessible to the masses—especially children—this film describes the sun in scientific but entertaining terms.
Thorium, the Far Side of Nuclear Power
Thorium, the Far Side of Nuclear Power
27 Sep 2016
Thorium, the Far Side of Nuclear Power
Ever heard of the Thorium molten salt reactor? That's hardly surprising, as for 70 years, it has been inexplicably kept under wraps by the nuclear industry, despite the fact it could revolutionise energy production. It offers the promise of nuclear energy without waste and without danger. The "green atom": fact or fiction? Research that was dropped without explanation in 1973, has now become a topic of lively discussion...
Images d'un été
Images d'un été
10 Jul 1953
Images d'un été
No overview found
Machine
Machine
12 Dec 2019
Machine
If machines can be smarter than people, is humanity really anything special?
Fantastic Fungi
Fantastic Fungi
30 Aug 2019
Fantastic Fungi
A vivid journey into the mysterious subterranean world of mycelium and its fruit— the mushroom. A story that begins 3.5 billion years ago, fungi makes the soil that supports life, connecting vast systems of roots from plants and trees all over the planet, like an underground Internet. Through the eyes of renowned mycologist Paul Stamets, professor of forest ecology Suzanne Simard, best selling author Michael Pollan, food naturalist Eugenia Bone and others, we experience the power, beauty and complexity of the fungi kingdom.
Attacking the Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime
Attacking the Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime
09 Jun 2014
Attacking the Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime
Before the internet. Before social media. Before breaking news. The victims of Thalidomide had to rely on something even more extraordinary to fight their corner: Investigative journalism. This is the story of how Harold Evans fought and won the battle of his and many other lives.
Inside Chernobyl with Ben Fogle
Inside Chernobyl with Ben Fogle
03 Mar 2021
Inside Chernobyl with Ben Fogle
Ben Fogle spends a week living inside the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, gaining privileged access to the doomed Control Room 4 where the disaster first began to unfold.
Einstein's Universe
Einstein's Universe
01 Jan 1979
Einstein's Universe
A documentary produced in 1979 to celebrate the centenary of the birth of Albert Einstein. Narrated and hosted by Peter Ustinov and written by Nigel Calder.
Microcosmos
Microcosmos
06 Sep 1996
Microcosmos
A documentary of insect life in meadows and ponds, using incredible close-ups, slow motion, and time-lapse photography. It includes bees collecting nectar, ladybugs eating mites, snails mating, spiders wrapping their catch, a scarab beetle relentlessly pushing its ball of dung uphill, endless lines of caterpillars, an underwater spider creating an air bubble to live in, and a mosquito hatching.
Seabrook 1977
Seabrook 1977
01 Jan 1978
Seabrook 1977
In April 1977, the small coastal town of Seabrook, New Hampshire became an international symbol in the battle over atomic energy. Concerned about the dangers of potential radioactive accidents, over 2,000 members of the Clamshell Alliance, a coalition of environmental groups, attempted to block construction of a nuclear power plant. 1,414 people were arrested in that civil disobedience protest and jailed en masse in National Guard armories for two weeks.
Nuclear Now
Nuclear Now
09 Sep 2022
Nuclear Now
With unprecedented access to the nuclear industry in France, Russia, and the United States, Nuclear Now explores the possibility for the global community to overcome the challenges of climate change and energy poverty to reach a brighter future through the power of nuclear energy. Beneath our feet, Uranium atoms in the Earth’s crust hold incredibly concentrated energy. Science unlocked this energy in the mid-20th century, first for bombs and then to power submarines. The United States led the effort to generate electricity from this new source. Yet in the mid-20th century as societies began the transition to nuclear power and away from fossil fuels, a long-term PR campaign to scare the public began, funded in part by coal and oil interests.
The Real T Rex with Chris Packham
The Real T Rex with Chris Packham
02 Jan 2018
The Real T Rex with Chris Packham
A documentary examining what the Tyrannosaurus Rex was really like - both appearance and behaviour - using the recent palaeontological and zoological research.
The Battle of Chernobyl
The Battle of Chernobyl
28 Jan 2007
The Battle of Chernobyl
On April 26, 1986, a 1,000 feet high flame rises into the sky of the Ukraine. The fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant just exploded. A battle begins in which 500,000 men are engaged throughout the Soviet Union to "liquidate" the radioactivity, build the "sarcophagus" of the damaged reactor and save the world from a second explosion that would have destroyed half of Europe. Become a reference film, this documentary combines testimonials and unseen footage, tells for the first time the Battle of Chernobyl.
Kingdom of Saturn: Cassini's Epic Quest
Kingdom of Saturn: Cassini's Epic Quest
01 Jan 2017
Kingdom of Saturn: Cassini's Epic Quest
Before the joint NASA/ESA Cassini-Huygens mission, humanity only knew what had been learned, decades earlier, with the previous limited, rapid "fly-by" Pioneer and Voyager missions. Cassini-Huygens spent more than 13 years in wildly varied orbits around Saturn, allowing the spacecraft to pass near many of its moons, as well as execute a soft-landing of its Huygens lander on the moon Titan. By mission end, it accumulated a mountain of imagery and scientific data that will continue to be studied for years to come. This film is a testament to the amazing efforts of the scientists who planned and executed the mission. It combines breathtaking images, movies, and a variety of animations to take the viewer into Saturn's complex system of rings and moons, as well as stepping viewers through some of the more exciting scientific discoveries made over the course of the elaborately complex mission.
Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island
Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island
20 Mar 2024
Radioactive: The Women of Three Mile Island
In this thrilling documentary, indomitable women fight back against the nuclear industry to expose one of the biggest cover-ups in US history: the 1979 Three Mile Island meltdown and its aftermath. The film reveals the never-before-told stories of four intrepid homemakers who take their case all the way to the Supreme Court, and a young female journalist who's caught in the radioactive crossfire.
Black Hole Hunters
Black Hole Hunters
10 Apr 2019
Black Hole Hunters
A team of international scientists attempt to document the first-ever image of a black hole.
Europe‘s Largest Desert
Europe‘s Largest Desert
07 Jul 2016
Europe‘s Largest Desert
Near the cold Pyrenees of Iberia, surrounded by ancient and dark green forests, lies a strange land where the rain is scarce and the wind is always blowing. The soil is poor, there are no trees and the landscape resembles the moon. Is this what the future of desertification will look like? Incredible creatures with surprising behavior live in this strange landscape. The documentary explores a place with very dry skin but a wet hidden heart where even waterfowl or amphibians can live. Living in such conditions is not easy and only the toughest animals will survive.
Out of Plain Sight
Out of Plain Sight
07 Feb 2025
Out of Plain Sight
From Pulitzer Prize-finalist Rosanna Xia and Academy Award®-winning L.A. Times Studios, OUT OF PLAIN SIGHT is a cinematic exposé of an environmental disaster lurking just off the coast of Southern California. Not far from Catalina Island, aboard one of the most-advanced research ships in the world, David Valentine discovered a corroded barrel on the seafloor that gave him chills. The full environmental horror sharpens into greater clarity once he calls Los Angeles Times journalist Rosanna Xia, who pieces together a shocking revelation: In the years after World War II, as many as half a million barrels of toxic waste had been quietly dumped into the ocean – and the consequences continue to haunt the world today.
The Most Unknown
The Most Unknown
16 Mar 2018
The Most Unknown
An epic documentary film that sends nine scientists to extraordinary parts of the world to uncover unexpected answers to some of humanity’s biggest questions. How did life begin? What is time? What is consciousness? How much do we really know? By introducing researchers from diverse backgrounds for the first time, then dropping them into new, immersive field work they previously hadn’t tackled, the film pushes the boundaries of how science storytelling is approached. What emerges is a deeply human trip to the foundations of discovery and a powerful reminder that the unanswered questions are the most crucial ones to pose. Directed by Emmy-nominated and Peabody Award-winning filmmaker Ian Cheney and advised by world-renowned filmmaker Werner Herzog, The Most Unknown is an ambitious look at a side of science never before shown on screen.