Atomkraft Forever

Germany is turning away from nuclear power once and for all in 2022. Because the risk is too high, the technology unmanageable. Yet the nuclear nightmare goes on: with umpteen thousands of tonnes of radioactive waste whose storage isn’t the least bit clear. With the hazardous dismantling of power plants which will take decades and gobble up many billions of euros. And with neighbours who firmly hold on to mankind’s dream of atomic energy: 13 of the 27 nations in the EU operate nuclear power plants and the development thereof continues.

The feature-length documentary film NUCLEAR FOREVER (original title: ATOMKRAFT FOREVER) by Carsten Rau takes an equally profound and alarming look at the nuclear nightmare. In grand scenes that have yet to be portrayed like this, and in six interwoven episodes: about the absurd amount of effort involved in demolishing a gigantic nuclear power plant. About the quest for a final repository that is supposed to weather a million years and the next ten ice ages. Into the heart of the French atomic industry that ridicules the German opt-out as “ludicrous” and wants even more power plants.

In the process, what particularly sets this film apart is that it does not take sides in this debate which has been conducted for decades on a bitterly ideological plane. NUCLEAR FOREVER doesn’t leave any arguments out, even though they may be unpopular. In the end, the viewer can and must form their own impression of the mania called nuclear power. That has no end.

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