The Oppenheimer Movie and a Real-Life Radiation Time Bomb
On a recent visit to the United States, I made a couple of trips to the movie theater. With Barbie and Oppenheimer smashing records and trending in the news, it was as good a time as any to jump on the Barbenheimer Bandwagon. Barbie was fun and sparked a good bit of discussion with my partner as we left the theater. As history buffs, we were excited and curious about Oppenheimer and how it would portray the events surrounding the I can honestly say that while the movie was heavy, it was pretty well done. It was well-researched, well-acted, and well-shot. There were some stylistic choices and pacing which felt a little clunky, but overall, it was pretty good. For a nerd like me, though, the devil was in all the little details. The one that really hit me in the gut was a brief, blink-and-you-miss-it throwaway line.
There have been a number of horrific accidents involving radiation since we discovered how to harness it. We’ve all heard of Chornobyl, and most of us know about Three Mile Island and Fukushima. And if you’re a Canadian like myself, you probably salute Jimmy Carter for what he and his troops did during the world’s first nuclear reactor meltdown in Chalk River. Not many people would allow themselves to be lowered into a radioactive hell pit to help dismantle it from the inside, but that’s exactly what they did. And I don’t mean he just ordered it — Jimmy Carter himself went into that reactor, taking an insane gamble with his health in order to help save Canadian lives.
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