[electronic beeping]
[static fizzling]
[man] Truly the superpower which man has released from within the atom's heart
is not one but many giants.
[female narrator] It's 1952.
The destructive power of the atom bomb is still fresh in everyone's memory.
But now, General Electric
is touting the potential peaceful benefits of nuclear power.
Cheap, clean energy with a host of other practical applications.
[man] All are within man's power
in the new world of the atomic age.
[woman, over radio] Okay, we're looking around.
[narrator] What they don't yet know are the terrible dangers
that nuclear power will unleash on the world.
As of 2019, over 10% of the world's electricity
comes from nuclear power.
The biggest user? France.
Over 70% of their energy comes from nuclear plants.
But nuclear power produces radioactive waste.
To date, the US alone has generated 80,000 tons,
enough to fill a football field 20 meters deep.
Waste that remains toxic for thousands of years.
And there's a more immediate threat:
nuclear meltdown.
So if it's risky,
even deadly...
why are we still playing with nuclear fire?
[crowd chanting]
Germany, 1938.
While Hitler's trying to convince people about the superiority of his race...
Jewish chemist Lise Meitner and her colleagues, Otto Hahn
and Fritz Strassmann, make a scientific discovery
that will change the world.
It's called nuclear fission. But what is it really?
An atom is small.
Like, really small.
If every atom of your hand was the size of a marble,
your fist would be the size of Earth.
And atoms store all their energy in the nucleus.
But if you fire a neutron particle at an atom of uranium, its nucleus splits,
releasing 200 times the energy of the original neutron that triggered it.
And it doesn't stop there.
The split uranium atom throws off two extra neutrons.
And those collide with more uranium atoms,
and boom, you've got a chain reaction, creating radiation and heat.
The problem is,
while nuclear fission has the potential to produce energy,
the German scientists who discover it
know that it also has the potential to make a powerful weapon.
And soon, the Nazi government takes their research,
hoping to develop an atomic bomb.
In response to this terrifying threat,
world-renowned scientist Albert Einstein writes a letter to President Roosevelt,
confirming that a weapon using this technology would be very bad.
They must beat the Germans to it.
The result is the Manhattan Project,
combining all of America's industrial, scientific, and financial might
with support from the UK and Canada.
The goal? To research and develop an atomic bomb before Hitler can.
By July 1945, they're ready for the first test,
at Los Alamos in New Mexico.
One month later,
the atom bomb makes its devastating wartime debut.
[man] At 08:15 on August 6th, over military target Hiroshima,
Bombardier Major Ferebee took over.
He was about to drop the atom bomb.
Three days later, a second atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.
It is an atomic bomb.
It is a harnessing of the basic power of the universe.
The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed
against those who brought war to the Far East.
[narrator] The atom bombs that drop over two Japanese cities
bring a swift and cataclysmic end to World War II.
But wait.
After the war, the brains at the Manhattan Project
say there's a peaceful spin-off of their technology.
Nuclear power is born.
[man] With the atomic bomb,
American scientists unlocked the devastating might of the atom.
Today, they are engaged in the task
of releasing atomic energy slowly, gradually,
in ways of lasting benefit to a world at peace in the atomic age.
[narrator] At peace, perhaps.
But there's a huge downside to working with atomic energy.
Any exposure to radioactive material in small doses
could cause cancer down the line
or, in large doses, kill you outright.
[man] And now, a men's fashion note
from the Hanford Atomic Works in Washington.
Oh, yes, this is what you ought to wear if you move in nuclear fission circles.
[narrator] But in the early 1950s,
the possibilities of this new source of power
seem almost limitless.
[man] The future supplying of electric power to entire cities
is far from impossible.
[narrator] Nuclear power promises to provide a steady supply of clean energy
from a relatively abundant source.
[sputtering]
But nuclear scientists envision many more tantalizing benefits.
Farms will be able to use irradiated fertilizer
to increase their overall output.
[man] Helping to assure bigger and better yields
from tomorrow's farms.
-[zapping] -[alarm ringing]
[narrator] And there are potential medical advances too.
Radioactive sodium will be able to detect heart disease
or locate brain tumors.
[man] Helping to diagnose and cure the sick.
[narrator] But most of all, nuclear power plants
will be a reliable energy source that doesn't pollute the atmosphere...
or involve costly fossil fuels.
The practical applications of going nuclear just can't be ignored.
For a time,
the Americans managed to keep the secret to splitting the atom
but not for long.
Soon, the Soviets figure it out too
and beat everyone to the punch,
establishing the world's first fully-operational atomic power plant
at Obninsk, 68 miles southwest of Moscow.
Europe isn't far behind.
But one of the United Kingdom's first reactors,
called Windscale, is soon making headlines.
[alarm blaring]
A fire in the reactor
leaves about 15 tons of radioactive fuel melted in the core.
The British government downplays the seriousness of the incident.
"Nothing to see here."
What steps are being taken to see that such an accident never happens again?
Industries, like individuals, must learn from their mistakes.
We'll learn from this one.
[narrator] In the USA, the first commercial atomic power station
opens a year later in Shippingport, Pennsylvania.
The controls might seem straight out of science fiction,
but the way these early plants worked is actually pretty simple.
A nuclear reactor is really just a massive tea kettle.
Inside the reactor core, fuel rods made of uranium
are blasted with neutrons, triggering nuclear fission.
And the energy released heats up the surrounding water,
turning it into steam.
The steam powers turbines,
producing electricity.
It seems to be a miraculous source of energy.
Great strides have been taken in the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes.
Tragically, little has been done
to eliminate the use of atomic and nuclear power for weapons purposes.
That endangers the peace.
[narrator] It's a big problem.
The Soviet Union isn't just making nuclear power plants.
They're testing hydrogen atom bombs too.
And so is the US.
By the end of the 1950s,
over 300 atomic bombs have been exploded in tests.
[man] Surely only a madman, deliberately courting certain destruction in reprisal,
would dare to initiate an all-out nuclear war.
[narrator] The piling up of a nuclear arsenal
on both sides of the Iron Curtain
starts terrifying the public.
Protesters want a nuclear-free world.
"No bombs," they say,
but also no nuclear energy.
[crowd] Ban the bomb! Ban the bomb! Ban the bomb!
[narrator] Faced with protests and a concerned public,
by the early 1970s, the buzz of nuclear energy fades.
Investors say it's just too expensive and too difficult to pull off.
"We'll just stick with fossil fuels."
But then the US dollar weakens with an economic recession,
just as the Middle East explodes into chaos.
And oil prices soar.
America's energy demands have grown so rapidly
that they now outstrip our energy supplies.
As a result, we face the possibility of temporary fuel shortages
and some increases in fuel prices in America.
This is a serious challenge.
[narrator] All of a sudden, those fossil fuels
aren't looking so attractive.
Investors take another long look at nuclear power.
And this time, they go all in.
Between 1970 and 1985, building booms.
More than half the reactors in the world today
start construction in this period.
But they don't come quick or cheap.
The average cost for a small nuclear reactor: $750 million.
And they can take decades to build.
One of the Soviet Union's largest projects?
A four-reactor power plant in Ukraine called Chernobyl.
But more nuclear reactors means more radioactive waste to dispose of.
And that's a problem.
Several disposal companies take advantage of an international agreement,
allowing them to dump low-level radioactive waste into the sea,
where it will take thousands of years to dissipate.
[woman shouts indistinctly]
Protesters insist there's no way of knowing the true environmental damage
and put their lives at risk to stop the practice.
They're dumping pollution in the water, nuclear waste in the water.
That goes through the fish. It comes back to mankind.
I mean, it's, uh... it's disgusting.
Everybody has to question the right of any government
to dump that kind of waste in these oceans.
[narrator] In total, nearly a million cubic meters of waste
is dropped in the ocean before the practice is banned in 1993.
1979 is also the year that the dangers of nuclear power
become apparent to all Americans.
[ringing]
Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania.
A jammed relief valve creates
a dangerous buildup of heat in the system...
cooking the reactor's core,
until the uranium melts.
America's first nuclear meltdown.
All the radiation inside the containment tank
leaks into the surrounding area.
And an estimated 2 million people are exposed to small amounts.
[man] The schools here in Middletown are still shut down.
And the shop windows still carry instructions
on what to do if an evacuation is ordered.
[narrator] There are no deaths recorded.
Still, Three Mile Island will go down
as the worst nuclear accident in US history.
And public support for nuclear energy in the US nosedives.
[man] President Carter, a supporter of nuclear energy,
may also find himself pressured to go even further
in cutting back America's nuclear energy program.
[narrator] Between 1979 and 1988, construction is canceled
on 67 planned nuclear power plants in America.
A decision that seems wise in April of 1986.
Chernobyl power plant, inside Ukraine in the Soviet Union.
Disaster strikes again.
In Reactor 4, a safety test is underway, so emergency systems are turned off.
But there's suddenly a power surge.
Control rods meant to protect the uranium from melting
get jammed as they enter the core.
And a nightmare unfolds.
-[rumbling] -[explosion]
Radioactive material spews into the atmosphere.
The toxicity of the radioactive cloud is equal to 400 Hiroshima bomb explosions.
And it reaches as far as the United Kingdom.
[indistinct chattering]
After Chernobyl, people's fear and distrust of nuclear radiation,
the invisible killer, only grows.
Still, supporters of nuclear power insist that, when properly managed, it's safe.
And nowhere is this support louder, ironically, than in the only country
that has ever known the devastation of an atomic bomb: Japan.
For this island nation,
nuclear power is the key to energy independence.
By the year 2000, Japan generates up to 30% of its total electricity
using nuclear plants.
One reason, nuclear energy is green energy.
In March 2002, the Japanese government announces
it will rely on nuclear energy to reach the goals set by the Kyoto Protocol
for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
They're on track to build 12 new nuclear plants...
until March of 2011, when disaster strikes.
[woman screams]
An earthquake, followed by a huge tsunami wave
that floods the eastern side of the country...
[siren wailing]
...including the nuclear power plant at Fukushima.
The wave disables the generators, knocking out its cooling system,
and once again, meltdown.
[man] Officials in Japan say radiation high enough to damage human health
has leaked from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility
following an explosion there.
[narrator] The cost of the Fukushima cleanup
is estimated to be hundreds of billions of dollars.
And it leaves a vast stretch of land completely uninhabitable.
Afterwards, Japan shuts down all its nuclear reactors
until they pass stringent new safety tests.
But does this latest nuclear nightmare mark the end of the age of atomic power?
Not by a long shot. We may need nuclear power more than ever.
By 2050, the population of Earth
is projected to grow by 2 billion to 9.8 billion.
Humanity's energy needs could be out of reach.
Nuclear power could close that gap if enough nations adopted it.
There's just one catch.
If you've got a nuclear power plant...
you also have the means to make a nuclear weapon.
So which countries are you going to trust with this technology?
There are five official members of the global nuclear club.
But hold on.
There are four rogue nuclear states outside the club.
And though most nations claim to be using nuclear technology solely for power,
they've all been caught testing weapons.
So, what's the answer?
Well, there is a different type of nuclear energy out there.
It's called nuclear fusion,
inspired by the physics of the sun.
So, what is fusion?
Instead of splitting the atom, as with nuclear fission,
it happens when atoms collide and their nuclei fuse together.
The process releases a huge amount of energy.
In fact, three to four times more energy than fission...
while leaving none of the messy, toxic residue.
But what makes it possible
is the incredible heat and gravitational power of the sun,
something hard to duplicate on Earth.
One way is by using massive magnetic fields,
like in this prototype in Germany, named the Stellarator.
[in German] I think that when we get the correct answers here,
we will have a very good chance
to see functioning reactors within this century.
The fuel is readily available,
so in that way, this would be a game changer.
[narrator] Progress, perhaps.
But until the technique is proven,
we're stuck with the nuclear fission process we have.
Imperfect, potentially dangerous, and wasteful.
And yet, nuclear power is still considered to be one of the best ways
to wean ourselves off an even bigger threat to the planet...
carbon emissions from fossil fuels.
Today, 53 new nuclear power plants are under construction worldwide.
Opponents say, "Haven't we learned anything?
Why are we still playing with fire?"
The answer may be, "Because we have to."
Nuclear power may be the only way for humanity
and the Earth itself to survive.
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