Event

Nuclear Power Play: A Screening and Discussion

Military personnel observe a nuclear weapons test in Nevada, the United States, in 1951. Image from US government.

Nuclear Power Play DC Environmental Film Festival

Image courtesy of PBSNewsHour.

Image courtesy of PBSNewsHour.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017 - 07:00pm EDT (GMT -0400)
Carnegie Institution for Science
1530 P Street NW
Root Auditorium
Washington, DC 20005
United States
RSVP

Join Pulitzer Center-supported grantees journalist Kit R. Roane and Jamie McIntyre at the Carnegie Institution for Science, on Wednesday, March 22, 2017, for a screening and discussion on the impact of nuclear power in partnership with the 2017 Environmental Film Festival. Also on hand Sharon Squassoni, director and senior fellow at the CSIS Proliferation Prevention Program, and Samira Goetschel, director of "City 40."

Two short films supported by the Pulitzer Center and a full-length documentary will be the topic of evening's discussion, moderated by Pulitzer Center Senior Editor Tom Hundley.

"Nuclear Winter" is a 12 minute short film produced by Retro Report for the New York Times and reported by Roane. It explores how Cold War scientists once feared that a nuclear war could plunge the world into a deadly ice age. Three decades later, this theory still might resonate.

"As Pentagon Overhauls Nuclear Triad, Critics Advise Caution" is only nine and a half minutes, but is produced by Sagalyn with PBS NewsHour. It examines the Pentagon's preparation for an extensive — and expensive —modernization of the country’s half-century-old land, air, and sea-based nuclear weapons. Supporters contend a fully-equipped nuclear triad is essential for national defense and deterrence, but critics say it’s time to reexamine the extent of our arsenal in a post-Cold War world. Pulitzer Center special correspondent grantee Jamie McIntyre reports.

In the third film, City 40 (73 min), directed by Samira Goetschel there is a hidden city where thousands of men, women and children live and work behind barbed-wire fences monitored by armed guards. The residents are told they are the nuclear shield and saviors of the world. They are told that everyone on the outside is the enemy. One of the most contaminated places on earth, and home to Russia’s largest stockpile of fissile materials, this place is called CITY 40. In this feature-length documentary, the film crew gets smuggled inside CITY 40 and — behind a psychological façade of normality — they encounter a single mother and a handful of brave residents who risk their lives to expose human and environmental catastrophes that threaten the world.

For more on this year's festivities please visit the Environmental Film Festival website.

Reserve your seat today.

Nuclear Power Play: A Screening and Discussion
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
7:00PM
Carnegie Institution for Science
Root Auditorium
1530 P Street NW
Washington, DC 20005