Dr. David Suzuki Movies

Edward Teller was one of the men responsible for the invention of the hydrogen bomb, but while he helped create one of the most fearsome weapons the world has ever known, he was somehow convinced that it could also have practical applications in peacetime. As leader of a group called "Project Plowshare," Teller believed that nuclear weapons could be used to power rockets, excavate oil wells, and dig a new Panama Canal in a matter of moments. However, while the dangers of radioactive fallout seemed a secondary concern to the men of Project Plowshare, the growing outcry over the health risks presented by such "planetary engineering" planted the seeds for the modern environmental and peace movements (though the use of "Peaceful Nuclear Explosions" was hardly limited to the United States, and became an issue of major concern in the Soviet Union). Nuclear Dynamite is a documentary on the history of Peaceful Nuclear Explosions and features interviews with Edward Teller and several of his associates, as well as Soviet scientists involved in similar experiments and American anti-nuke activists Barry Commoner and Ursula Franklin. Nuclear Dynamite was screened at several film festivals in 2000, while an edited version was aired the same year by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, who helped finance the film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide