man_and_atom | Atomic Films and Videos (Reply)

I have been spending a considerable amount of time and money acquiring nuclear–energy–related ephemera, scanning them, and making them available on–line.

This has multiple motivations. Firstly, there is the fact that much of this material is still valuable for public education and outreach. If it catches someone’s interest, they might learn something! Second is the historic preservation aspect — this is the kind of material which tends to disappear without a trace. Thirdly, I want to show that the nuclear-energy endeavour is fundamentally a human endeavour. It’s very easy for opponents to reduce the whole thing to a faceless technocratic–scientific monolith, which is easy to oppose. The pride of the scientists and engineers and technicians in their creations and their work often shows through in this kind of material.

As an extension of this work, I have also acquired a number of instructional or public–information films and videos. A friend has been kind enough to handle transferring the VHS cassettes to digital format. Films, however, I have had to pay for transferring, and the best rate I can get is something like $10—$15 a minute! (For this reason, contributions in aid are always greatly appreciated.) Therefore the work goes slowly.

Oddly enough, about 2021–07–06, one of these videos got about 250 views in a short time, but nobody who watched it went on to watch any of the others. I admit to puzzlement!

Films transferred so far

Energy : the Nuclear Alternative, early 1970s, focusing on the debate (16 mm sound, faded colour)
Fuel for the Future, 1961, animated (BFI listing) — concentrates on thermonuclear fusion, but does cover fission in the second half (16 mm sound, good colour, 26 minutes)
L’Effort Atomique Française, 1961, English language version — sadly missing the first couple of minutes — covers uranium production, laboratories at Saclay and elsewhere, the plutonium facilities at Marcoule, the power plants under construction at Chinon, et cetera, in a very distinctive early–1960s style (16 mm sound, good colour, 12 minutes as–is)
The Atom : Big Boom in Natural Gas Recovery — Project Rulison, 1969 — thermonuclear fracking! (16 mm, sound, colour, 12 minutes)
For the Good of Man, Soviet propaganda film from the 1960s (16 mm, sound, monochrome, 4 minutes)
Solar Energy : To Capture the Power of Sun and Tide, early 1970s, some coverage of nuclear energy and decent shots of Pickering (16 mm sound, faded colour, 21 minutes)
The Atom and Archeology, circa 1970, demonstrating uses of nuclear technology such as carbon dating, authentication, and geochemical tracing by isotopic methods (16 mm sound, faded colour, 16 minutes)
Pellicule et Noyau, French language, 1976, shows the operation and something of the construction of a French–built PWR nuclear plant in Belgium, as the first of the Messmer Plan stations, Fessenheim, had not yet opened (16 mm sound, good colour, 20 minutes)
U comme Uranium, 1ère Partie, De la Mine à la Centrale, French language, 1970s — partly animated, covers mining, refining, and enrichment of uranium, and fabrication of LWR fuel — presumably there is somewhere a Part 2 covering topics including, dare we say it, reprocessing? (16 mm sound, good colour, 17 minutes)
Electricité Nucléaire, French language, early 1960s, shows details of the UNGG stations at Chinon (16 mm sound, somewhat faded colour, 7 minutes)
Fessenheim : An 1, French language, 1978, newsreel about the first large PWR station in France (16 mm sound, monochrome, 3 minutes)
La Separation des Isotopes de l’Uranium (Diffusion Gazeuse), French language, circa 1970, shows the Pierrelatte plant (16 mm sound, good colour, 16 minutes)
Touchés par l’Uranium (Drabbad av Uran), 1980, anti–nuclear TV production from well–known Swedish documentarians Hedlund and Tengroth, dubbed into French but with the original language still faintly audible (16 mm sound, good colour, 38 minutes)
La Scoperta della Radioattività, Italian language (produced in Germany), 1960s (16 mm sound, somewhat faded colour, 16 minutes)
Atomic Electroenergetics, Russian language, 1980s, extensive views of nuclear power plants plus manufacturing facilities, enrichment plant, reprocessing plant, et cetera (16 mm sound, monochrome, 17 minutes)
The Electric Power Industry and a View of its Development, Russian language, 1980s, some views of nuclear power plants (16 mm sound, monochrome, 21 minutes)
Industrial Production of Electric Power — Alternating Current, Russian language (produced in Kiev), 1988, some shots of power plants of various kinds, including nuclear and power–tower solar (16 mm sound, monochrome, 15 minutes)
Kernfusion — Erforschung einer neuen Energiequelle, German language, 1983 topic is the Wendelstein stellarator at Garching near Munich (16 mm sound, good colour, 20 minutes)
Nuclear Fission of Uranium (Super–8, silent with German title cards, badly faded colour, FWU, 1970, 4 minutes)
Operation of a Nuclear Power Plant (Super–8, silent with German title cards, badly faded colour, FWU, 1970, 4 minutes)
Energy Problems of the Federal Republic of Germany — Energy Consumption, only peripherally nuclear–related (Super–8, silent with German title cards, badly faded colour, 1974, 6 minutes) — Teacher’s booklet

Films yet to be transferred

Atomic Energy : Inside the Atom, Britannica film not in the group on the Internet Archive (16 mm sound, monochrome)
Everyday Radiation, American school film, 1970s (16 mm sound)
How Much is Enough?, American school film about radiation measurements, 1970s (16 mm sound)
A reel of promo films for upcoming issues of Reader’s Digest from the early 1960s (what audience were these meant for?), including one on nuclear power (16 mm sound, faded colour)
An Italian news program from about 1963 referring to the opening of their first atomic power stations (16 mm sound)

VHS cassettes transferred

A Nuclear Power Plant Tour — Millstone, Connecticut (Northeast Utilities, 1991)
Teacher’s guide
Nuclear Power : Electricity Generation at Millstone Nuclear Station — appears to be a mediocre transfer of a film shown in the visitor center (Northeast Utilities, 1989)
Teacher’s guide
Radiation and You (Northeast Utilities, 1989)
Teacher’s guide
Nuclear Energy — Energy from the Atom — I haven’t gotten around to scanning the booklet with this one, because it’s 100 pages long (Northeast Utilities, 1994)