A rather blurry 16mm print, and a bit dark, but the color is still vivid. Pretty trippy for '82 with lots of impressive animation in this one - like an intermission film shown at a Laserium show - would be a perfect projected backdrop for a concert! Nuclear fission, atomic reactors, thermonuclear detonations, and particle accelerators are all explored. This reel was transferred from my own 16mm archive print using my Eiki Telecine. The Eiki projects a 24fps print at 30 frames per second for a flickerless NTSC transfer. A special diffusion plate eliminates the 'hot spot' of the projector, and the sound is pulled right from the optical track. Enjoy!
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#Electronics #Atom #reactor
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By Fran

16 thoughts on “Atomic energy (1982)”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Joe Borrello says:

    So this film was made a few years after Three Mile Island, I presume to put everyone’s mind at ease. Then four years later, Chernobyl. Oopsie!

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Geoffrey Waldo says:

    Hi Fran!!!!
    Great film, brings back memories. Might you possibly have a documentary film strip I saw in grade school, called Zinc In Our Lives?
    Thanks!

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Seegal Galguntijak says:

    Those 30-50 years in the future remind me of the joke: What's the name of the timespan that the development of "strong AI" or "Artificial Superintelligence" alwayse lays in the future, seen from the present moment? One Kurzweil!

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Seegal Galguntijak says:

    Haha, "some time early next century" – that would be now. It's the same old joke: In 30-50 years, we'll have fusion power. Although some of that is due to economics, because we do have a Stellarator design that works: Wendelstein-7X in Greifswald, Germany. It's just too small to provide fusion energy, but it's proven that if scaled up something like 10-fold, it would do that. The only problem is the probably 20-40 billions it would take to build one…

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars NBNTelevision says:

    I was certain that the narrator was Linda Ellerbee. Turns out it isn’t. Sure sounds like her, though.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Richard Hawley says:

    This is the 21st century returning your call; sorry we still don't have viable fusion reactor technology yet, try again in another 20 years.

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ikon Sees Mr No says:

    Many thanks for another great video! Your last one, on how you go about doing the transfer, has inspired me to do the same to explain how I transferred my old filmstrips. Thanks for that! Regards!!

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Anthony says:

    This one's still very relavent and relatable. It's not pushing an agenda, it's not trying to frighten. I'll show it to my kids because it does such a great job of explaining the difficult concepts. Thanks!

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Rob says:

    In 1982 it was believed that in about 40 years time we would be able to use nuclear fusion to generate electricity.
    Now, 40 years later, this is still believed to be possible in about 40 years time.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars AlaskaEngineer says:

    Great old film… but if the core of the earth were radioactive, then the lava would carry that to the surface.

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mike Hanley says:

    I'm guessing this would have been projected in a school science class back then? VHS or Betamax would have been really expensive still….

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars siamak Khodadoust says:

    Well, we already have a huge and safe nuclear fusion reactor; the Sun.

    The question now is that how we could get the most of necessary forms of energy receiving from it on earth.

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Krystal says:

    Those that are the most determined to save the planet seem to be the same people that are most determined to not have nuclear power, I think I know why now, they watched this wonderful documentary.

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars john morgan says:

    Fission doesn't happen in nature, apart from at the site that was found in the Gabon, in central Africa. But that's the thing about knowledge and science, it develops over time.

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Brian Su says:

    Lovely film!!! I’m jealous. Anyway it’s amazing how much of this we now know is incorrect, and to think how much of what we know today will likewise be proven incorrect in 20 years from now.

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Keri Szafir says:

    I like viewing these old movies from a few decades' perspective. It's mostly about science fiction, but documentary/educational movies are fine too. Gives me an idea how the futuristic visions of my times looked like back then, with a lot of "well, not quite", "that's kinda funny" or "what were they thinking, for crying out loud?!" comments :).

    "a nuclear powerplant […] can never become a bomb"
    Well, four years later, somewhere in the USSR… 🙂

    "so perhaps sometime early in the next century we will be able to tame fusion and put it to work providing energy"
    Nah, still not here. We'll see where ITER is going.

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