The Atomic Age

From Cold War codebreakers to massive meltdowns, these shows explore the fallout of scientific discovery in a nuclear world.

  • Original
    • E80
    • 13m
    • 95%
    • 4K

    Humanity is closer than ever before to a perpetual clean power source after a team of scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction resulting in a net energy gain. We now know one thing is possible, we can reach ignition.

  • Original
    • 1h 5m
    • 94%
    • 4K

    Ten years after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi Power Plant following the 3.11 megaquake and megatsunami, the once beautiful ‘satoyama’ landscape is now replaced by haphazardly spreading wilderness. The most conspicuous change may be in the local ecosystem.

    • E2
    • 50m
    • 93%

    July 1945: amid fierce Japanese resistance in the Pacific, Truman and Stalin pushed for Japan to surrender. The atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, as well as the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, ensured Allied victory.

  • Original
    • 10m
    • 95%

    During WWII the federal government took over the 60k acres of land known as, Tennessee’s Cumberland Plateau, turning it into a secret city where workers unknowingly were building the world's 1st atomic bomb. Today it’s known as the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where some believe that WWII was won.

    • 51m
    • 94%

    Newly declassified MI5 files reveal the story of the female spy - Ursula Kuczynski, a Jewish German refugee - who stole Britain’s atomic secrets and gave them to the Soviets.

  • Original
    • E3
    • 50m
    • 96%

    The Japanese Super Code reveals the US efforts to crack Japan’s unbreakable WW2 code following the horror of the attack on Pearl Harbour. But can one Naval Officer with a penchant for crosswords really stop the Japanese onslaught and turn the War in the Pacific in America’s favor?

    • E8
    • 24m
    • 94%

    The decisions of only a handful of individuals determined the course of the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. What transpired over a few hours would have an impact on the local community, Russia, Europe and the globe.

    • 44m
    • 95%

    Secret Nazi files from World War II reveal formerly classified technological innovations from brilliant German scientists who raced to create terrifying new “Wonder Weapons” and an atomic bomb. Some of their technological “firsts” remain the basis for modern-day air and spacecraft.

  • Original
    • E4
    • 16m
    • 96%
    • 4K

    The Cold War was won not by weapons of war, but blue jeans, silk stockings, and fast food. Just follow the money.

    • 54m
    • 94%

    Chernobyl nuclear disaster was the biggest technological accident in human history. Almost 35 years later, we go back to ground zero to the ghost city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine with survivors of the disaster.

    • E8
    • 25m
    • 97%

    Our focus for this chilling but fascinating episode is when humans are a serious danger to themselves through nuclear and industrial accidents. We'll look at the Fukushima and Chernobyl nuclear disasters, the Bhopal gas accident, the Savar Plaza building collapse and the BP oil spill.

    • 43m
    • 94%

    TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant is the site of one of history's worst nuclear disasters: the meltdown of three nuclear reactors. The decommissioning program in Japan learns from the Three Mile Island decommissioning in the US after the nuclear plant accident in 1976 in Pennsylvania.

    • 48m
    • 93%

    The Fukushima nuclear disaster is one of the worst cases of radioactive contamination in history. Even now, three years later, few details are available as to how such a massive release of radioactive materials occurred. This documentary attempts to get to the bottom of the mystery.

    • E5
    • 26m
    • 93%

    The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the defining moments of the mid-twentieth century and of the presidency of John Kennedy. How did the two Cold War powers of the USSR and the USA come to the point of threatening nuclear war?

  • Original
    • E1
    • 11m
    • 91%

    The Koursk, a missile-carrying nuclear submarine, was the pride of the Russian navy. No one expected problems with such a sophisticated vessel. But on August 12th, 2000, everything and everyone aboard the Koursk would plummet to the bottom of the Barents Sea.

  • Original
    • 1h 31m
    • 83%

    Dean Reed’s story is the story of a wild and changing world. Through the prism of his life, we witness global youth rebellion, revolutions in popular music, and the shifting tectonics of superpower rivalry.

    • E10
    • 45m
    • 92%
    • 4K

    In the final episode, Josh and Cody reunite to explore the nuclear disaster area of Fukushima in Japan. They also reflect upon their adventures and reveal the results of their location rankings.