Pandora's Promise

In a media marketplace where anti-nuke attitudes have reached critical mass, filmmaker Robert Stone's provocative documentary—featuring nuclear engineers, as well as converted environmentalists who are now in favor of atomic energy—offers a different take. Authors such as Gwyneth Cravens, Richard Rhodes, and Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand claim to have thoroughly investigated atomic-energy technology from both sides, and now consider it to be a sustainable and wise choice over climate-devastating fossil fuels (wind, tidal, and solar power being inadequate to realistically meet needs). Pandora's Promise argues that a large amount of anti-nuclear propaganda has been secretly underwritten by the oil and gas industries, and also suggests that meltdown sites such as Three Mile Island, Fukushima, and even the eerie ruins at Chernobyl, are not quite the uninhabitable wastelands depicted. France, an eco-conscious and politically progressive nation, converted to a nuclear-based infrastructure and now has the cheapest and cleanest power grid in Europe. It is truly a Through-the-Looking-Glass moment when Margaret Thatcher, warning in 1989 against CO2 emissions (nuclear power being her solution) sounds like the voice of reason, while opponents of nuclear power (with Dr. Helen Caldicott unfortunately looking like a raving lunatic) are lumped in with global-warming skeptics, Holocaust deniers, and other enemies of science fact. Although some of the film's points can certainly be debated, Pandora's Promise provides much-needed balance on a hot topic. Highly recommended. Editor's Choice. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)