The Nature of Things - My Nuclear Neighbour (2010)

Imagine that one morning you wake up to find out your next-door neighbour may be a nuclear power plant.

There was a time when we thought atomic power would solve all our energy needs. That promise lost its lustre in cost overruns, accidents and cover-ups. Now after decades of fading into the background the nuclear power industry is poised for a comeback. In Canada, and around the world, the nuclear industry is rebranding itself as the only practical solution to global warming.

This is a story of global importance – it's also a very local story. It's a tale of two small towns: one in rural Ontario that has been a centre of nuclear power almost as long as there has been nuclear power. The other is in the legendary Peace country of Northern Alberta, where residents woke up one day to hear that Alberta's first nuclear power facility might be moving in next door.

We travel with Lorraine Jensen and Brenda McSween from their farms in Peace River, Alberta to Kincardine, Ontario searching for answers to questions that are dividing their once harmonious community.