ABSTRACT
The power of the atom ended World War II. In the 1950's emphasis shifted from weapons-testing to "the peaceful atom." The Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was put in charge of its promotion and regulation—a linkage of duties that proved to have built-in conflicts. The promotion focused on the better life—to be ushered in by virtually unlimited electric energy, which would be clean, safe, and available at negligible cost, according to AEC forecasts. The AEC regulations barred cameramen, other than United States Army Signal Corps cameramen, from all nuclear installations. Such regulations were accepted at the time as necessary to national security. The AEC itself became the chief fountainhead of films promoting atomic energy. During the 1950's and 1960's it released more than a hundred films, almost all given free to television stations. At least twenty appeared on educational stations via the National Educational Television program service.
