Dark circle.

An informative film about what the nuclear age means to those who are working directly in its shadow. Narrated by Judy Irving and shot on location in Colorado, California and Japan, it tells the personal stories of those who have been involved in the making, testing and selling of the atomic bomb. The first half of the documentary focuses on the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant near Denver, Colorado and its plutonium contamination of the local environment. The cancer rate in the region is 16% higher than in neighbouring areas. Don Gabel, a former worker at the plant, is now dying of brain cancer. Housing developments were built on contaminated soil despite objections from the County Health Director. Local resident Marlene Batley discusses her fears for her children’s health, and farmer Lloyd Mixon describes birth deformities he has observed in his livestock. Builder Rex Haag lost his young daughter to cancer, caused, he believes, by exposure to radiation. Harmful levels of plutonium were subsequently detected in her cremains. The rest of the film covers the development, wartime usage and testing of U.S. nuclear weapons, including the creation of warheads in commercial nuclear power plants such as Diablo Canyon on the Californian coast. A local activist group, Mothers for Peace, tried to block the creation of the plant without initial success. The film then travels to Nagasaki, where the second U.S. atomic bomb attack killed 70,000 people in four seconds. Sumiteru Taniguchi was a 16 year old postal worker in 1945. He received severe burns to his back, revealed in archival U.S. Army footage. Navy veteran Richard McHugh flew through an atomic cloud in 1951 during a test at Eniwetok in the South Pacific and now has leukaemia. Nuclear weapons designer Stirling Colgate discusses the thrill of watching a nuclear explosion from a safe distance, maintaining that the only way to prevent disaster is for the U.S. to remain at the forefront of nuclear armament. Distressing footage of the Priscilla Test, in which live pigs were subjected to the heat, radiation and blast of an atomic bomb, is also featured. Pam Solo, Catholic nun and peace activist, explains that nuclear power is a gateway to armament. Nancy Wood is another activist whose husband makes bombs at Rocky Flats. Later, she reveals that he has given up his job to start a small business. The film concludes by showing anti-nuclear protest activities directed at the Diablo Canyon Power Plant. The documentary supports the protesters’ assertion that their actions were responsible for delaying the licensing of the plant. As a result, serious construction errors were uncovered shortly before the reactor was started and the license was suspended indefinitely.