This week, PBS‘s “Independent Lens” is airing a remarkable documentary entitled Containment. Produced by Redacted Pictures and directed by Peter Galison and Robb Moss (working with co-producer and editor Chyld King), the film examines the challenges associated with disposal and storage of the byproducts of nuclear energy production and with conveying risk across generations. We in the Cyberlaw Clinic had the great pleasure of providing legal support to the the team behind Containment during the film’s production.
In the filmmakers’ own words:
Left over from the Cold War are a hundred million gallons of radioactive sludge, covering vast radioactive lands. Governments around the world, desperate to protect future generations, have begun imagining society 10,000 years from now in order to create monuments that will speak across the time. Part observational essay filmed in weapons plants, Fukushima and deep underground — and part graphic novel — Containment weaves between an uneasy present and an imaginative, troubled far future, exploring the idea that over millennia, nothing stays put.
It is an important and timely work — check local public television listings for specific airings throughout the week!