Pandora’s Promise: A Review

Nuclear power is a double edged sword in the eyes of most people, it is often percieved as dangerous, when in reality it is the second safest power source, behind wind power. This is something that Pandora’s Promise explains to the viewer. Several environmental activists whose views stem from the environmentalist movement in the 1960’s including Helen Caldicott, an Australian anti-nuclear advocate, continue to spread false information about nuclear power. Using Helen as an example, Pandora’s Promise explains the culture that America has produced around nuclear power, its association with nuclear weaponry and continued negative perceptions of the power source in popular culture such as The Simpsons. Pandora’s Promise offers several real world examples to counter these false cultural attitudes towards nuclear power:

-Nuclear disasters e.g. Chernobyl and Fukushima barely increase cancer rates for people living in nearby areas (according to the UN and the WHO)

-Coal power produces 3 times the radiation than nuclear power to the surrounding popluace

-Nuclear power is nearly unlimited and produces little pollution and little waste (if the reactor is a breeder reactor, not a light heat reactor which produces more waste and is inefficient)

The movie ends on a note which left me genuinely inspired, the United States is buying warheads from Russian nuclear weapons and turning them into electricity. Fifty percent of all of our nation’s nuclear power comes from these decommissioned warheads.

Overall, this movie was a refreshing break from the alarmist ecologist and environmentalist doomsday prophesiers that we have been seeing recently. The movie goes out of its way to criticize them and say that, “…to be anti-nuclear is to basically be in favor of burning fossil fuels.” It explains why thrid generation reactors are safer than the ones that have been built in the past such as Fukushima, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. The overall message is one of hope for the future than more nations will become like France, who generates 80% of its electricity from nuclear power and provide cleaner air for future generations. If I were to rate this movie based on its message, I would give it a 4/5, it can be muddled by the explanation of older theories by 1960’s based environmentalists in the beginning, such as the Vermont and New Hampshire protesters. These are quickly argued against by the movie; however, it confused me as to what stance Pandora’s Promise was going to take on nuclear power. As a final thought, I would recommend showing this movie to anyone who is skeptical of nuclear power, as it will be hard to look at this movie and deny its benefits for large scale energy production on a long term basis.