Before reviewing the movie Pandora’s Promise I want to make it clear that yes, some Vermonters were in this movie and yes I did grow up in Vermont if you were not aware. Thus, putting me in very close proximity to the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. Now why is this of relevance? Its of relevance simply because I have been exposed to the negative side of how Nuclear Power works. Moreover, I did not know my exact feelings about nuclear power until I watched this movie….Here is why my tainted mind from tree-hugging, anti-nuclear power plant Vermonters have been changed.
Pandora’s Promise did a very good job at expressing both the pro and anti nuclear power perspectives, this was done successfully by introducing Steward Brand, Gwyneth Cravens and my personal Favorite Mark Lynas. These three people are everything from environmentalist, once violent anti nuclear demonstrators, and pronuclear power activist. During this movie they took Mark Lynas a once antinuclear power environmentalist around the world to different areas exposed to nuclear radiation. Such places being Chernobyl, Fukushima Daiichi, and even an airplane 30+ thousand feet above the air the Atlantic ocean. What they found was astonishing to me….
During their travels to Chernobyl they found that the radiation levels were minimal, in fact, there was a small community that moved back to the contaminated area as they found that it was habitable and wanted “to be back home”. One male priest which they interviewed mentioned how he has been living there for 25 years illness free, and does not have any traces of radiation caused cancer in his body. While this is hard to believe, they took tests of background levels of radiation on a airplane while traveling to NYC; the levels read 2.20 and when landed in NYC they had readings of 0.13. Moreover, when they traveled to New Hampshire (I believe Mount Washington) they found levels of 0.30 and in Guarapari Brazil they found their local beach to have an astonishing level of 30.81! This is far beyond the national public safety levels, and there have been no deaths from this beach due to radiation…which leaves anyone questioning the effects of radiation.
While this movie left me very intrigued on the negative word of mouth nuclear power has gotten, greatly due to the creation of weapons of mass destruction with this technology. I found myself sucked into the positive aspects of nuclear power that people are not willing to accept. For instance, France has 80% of their power from nuclear reactors and they’re actually greener than Germany and Denmark, thus showing that nuclear power will and does positively impact and electrical grid. Not to mention that every year fossil fuels pollute the air enough to cause 3 million deaths in the 12-month span.
In conclusion, I found myself going from a feeling of neutral nuclear power, to pronuclear power due to the long-term benefits, the positive effect on the environments and the availability of recycling used nuclear waist to create more nuclear power. However, while the negative effects of nuclear are still in the back of my head, I feel the cost benefit analysis of nuclear power and the possible risks is enough to keep nuclear power active and growing.
