The Atomic States of America

Apparently, The Simpsons gag stereotype of nuclear power plants as leaky accident vectors does not stray far from the truth—and that's not all that funny. Documentary filmmakers Don Argott and Sheena M. Joyce charge that nuclear fission benefited from deceptive PR and corporate-lobbyist makeovers during Obama's first administration (when the first nuclear power plant in 32 years was approved), being newly christened as "green" energy, despite disasters at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, Japan. This film was inspired by the book Welcome to Shirley: Memoir From an Atomic Town by Kelly McMasters, who describes growing up in a Long Island ringed by nuke plants, in which cancer was such a frequent occurrence that the young McMasters thought it was normal—until she attended college out of town. At abandoned Three Mile Island, sardonic Pennsylvania activist Ed Epstein recalls the days of panic and cover-ups during the 1979 reactor meltdown; today, he finds the site unguarded and poorly monitored. Longtime anti-nuclear campaigner Dr. Helen Caldicott talks about various levels and varieties of radiation and the pernicious poison of spent plutonium. Actor Alec Baldwin minces no words (and drops the F-bomb) in criticizing Brookhaven Lab's leaking lethal tritium into residential well water. Only former NJ governor Christine Todd Whitman briefly defends nuclear energy in this otherwise one-sided and negative indictment. Although it never even bothers to suggest alternatives, The Atomic States of America powerfully warns of the dangers of a nuclear renaissance. Featuring both the full-length film and a 70-minute abridged version, this is recommended. Aud: C, P. (C. Cassady)