ISAR | Exchanges

The Visionaries traveled to one of the most contaminated spots on the planet to show that, even though no bombs were dropped, victims from the cold war do exist. Due to an explosion at a nearby nuclear facility that remained a secret until the 1980s, some residents of the southern Ural region of Chelyabinsk were exposed to as much as twenty times the radiation as the victims of Chernobyl. Struggling to bring this human tragedy to light, ISAR in Washington, D.C., began an exchange program between Russians and Americans. Their goal was to get both sides talking about the real enemy in the cold war-the nuclear contamination resulting from the arms buildups in both Russia and America. Viewers witness the extraordinary relationship that develops between two of these exchange participants-an activist from Los Almos, where the atomic bomb was invented, and a liquidator from Chernobyl-as they share their stories of tragedy and survival with the residents of Chelyabinsk. The show is airing on PBS stations across the country.

www.visionaries.org

Global Gatherings film company produced The Nuclear Age: A Common Legacy during an ISAR exchange program in 2002. The film features interviews with Russian and American nuclear safety activists as well as information about US and Russian nuclear issues. The film is designed to be an educational tool and is available in Russian and English. A copy of the film can be purchased from producer Leslie Larsen (leslielarsen@earthlink.net).