a sudden we found... that, as scientistsand technologists, we were capable of changing in a massive way the framework in which societyfunctioned. I and many others felt that nuclear power representeda major energy future for the world. You have to understand that... this was the first timethat mankind had ever found an energy source which wasn't a routine natural phenomenon [on Earth]. Fire, of course, comesevery time [] lightning strikes a forest; nuclear power wassomething else completely we made it. And our ability to give the world [] what appeared to be andstill does appear to be a limitless energy source for the future, was, to any scientist andengineer, probably the most exciting philosophic[al] concept you could find.[From footage of a TV address made by] President Eisenhower, September 1954 "Today, [in] Shippingport, Pennsylvania,we began building our first atomic power plant of commercialsize. "Mankind comes closer to fulfilment of theancient dream of a new and a better Earth. "The scientists have provided us with an exampleof nuclear science at work. In this baton [which he is holdingin his hands] there is a small source... of neutrons. I bring this source of neutrons overto this place in which we have uranium and we set up a bit of atomic fission. This willmove the marker on the scale and finally light the light [to which he points] and the project willbe started."In this general mood ofenthusiasm for science, politicians began to look to atomic power as more thanjust cheap electricity. It became the way to a better world.Prof. Yurii I. Koryakin, Head of Research, USSRInstitute of Power Research [subtitled] They were years of great hope. Stalin had just died [and] Khruschev had come topower. We believed atomic power would lead to a better life foreveryone. On top of all this, we were hypnotised by Lenin's slogan: "Communism equalsSoviet power plus the electrification of the whole country." Atomic power was seen as the way to communism.At the very same time asEisenhower began construction at Shippingport, Russia suddenly announced [that] it had already built theworld's first nuclear power station. What the Soviets did not reveal was thatit took more electricity to run the plantthan it produced.Then, in 1956, anothercountry entered the nuclear race. In this case, the atom's role was torecapture the glories of the past. [Footage of (presumably) 1950sBritain] [Voiceover:] "Tomorrow, Her Majesty the Queen, here atCalder Hall in Cumberland, is to open the first nuclearpower station in the world to operate on an industrial scale.""Our prosperity in theVictorian era", wrote the government's scientific adviser, Lord Cherwell,"was due to the men who put Britain eighty years ahead in the use of steampower. Our prosperity in the coming century will depend on learning how toexploit the latent energy in uranium."[From TV footage of] Richard Dimbleby [presenting the] BBC outside broadcast [of the] opening of Calder Hall [nuclear power station] "Uranium... [He picks up andholds a cartridge in his hand] Well, now, that is uranium. That little black thing I'mholding in my hand: two pounds of that [form] of uranium. And thepotential energy which couldbe given off by