Nuclear Lands: A History of Plutonium

PRESENTED BY: Meaningful Movies in Wallingford
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7:00 PM, Friday, June 1, 2018 PST
Location: Wallingford, Seattle, WA (click for map)

From the Hanford site in Washington State (home to scientists working on the Manhattan Project in 1943), to La Hague in France (a plutonium reprocessing plant), to Rokkasho in northern Japan (a nuclear plant built atop a seismic fault), this film tracks the origin and uses of plutonium.  Along the way it questions the transference of this material from military use to civilian use.  We hear citizens and politicians share their thoughts, and often their experiences of living near nuclear sites.  “Nuclear Lands” brings into focus the scientific, industrial and geopolitical stakes of plutonium, while recreating a history of the world-changing choice made in the mid-twentieth century, and the secret birth of dangerous industrial environments often sited in arid and desolate locations.

Join us after the film for a presentation by several Masters of Public Health students from the University of Washington who have been studying plutonium releases at the Hanford nuclear site in the past year.  Tom Carpenter from Hanford Challenge will also be present.

When plutonium was first manufactured at Berkeley in the spring of 1941, there was so little of it that it was not visible to the naked eye.  Now there is so much that we don’t know what to do to get rid of it.  We have created a monster.  (Jeremy Bernstein, Plutonium: A History of the World’s Most Dangerous Element)

 

Special Guests: Tom Carpenter, with Hanford Challenge

Release Year: 2015

Running Time: 53 minutes

Director: Kenici Watanabe

2 Comments so far

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  1. Dwight Rousu
    #1 Dwight Rousu Author 16 July, 2018, 21:59

    Hanford Challenge and Heart of America Northwest are fighting an important environmental battle for Washington state right now.
    Instead of Cleaning Up High Level Nuclear Waste… the Federal Energy Department (USDOE) Wants to rename (reclassify) it and Leave 4% of High Level Nuclear Wastes in Hanford’s Single Shell Tanks. Join Heart of America Northwest Exec. Director, State Rep Gerry Pollet, for first in a series of regional workshops:
    Seattle Thursday July 19 7 PM-8:30 PM; North Seattle College Multipurpose meeting room College Center (CC) 1161
    [SW corner of main campus building with visitor parking in front, just off College Way N (enter NE 95th St).]
    Washington Department of Ecology has been invited to share the State’s view or concerns.
    At the workshop, we will review this proposal, help you submit comments, and provide an update on other Hanford issues – such as the spread of Plutonium and what USDOE is planning to do with the collapsed PUREX tunnels.

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  2. DianeTurner
    #2 DianeTurner 10 August, 2018, 21:28

    Hanford Challenge is hosting 2 “Comment Writing Happy Hours” for you to weigh in on the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s proposal to reclassify Hanford high-level tank waste as low-level waste. Join them on August 23 and September 27, 4:00-6:00pm at their office, 2719 E. Madison St #304, Seattle. They’ll provide happy hour fare and tools to help you craft your comment.

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