America’s Chernobyl details the controversies, decision making, and actions that led to the fourth and fifth atomic detonations at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands in August 1946. The nation’s leaders did not understand the power that they possessed. In testing these devices, they unleashed a nuclear catastrophe that had a disastrous effect on thousands of US Navy personnel. This course presents a cautionary tale about the consequences of government and scientific arrogance that we can view from the distance of eighty years.

John Powers is a writer and director of narrative and documentary stories. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California with an MFA in Drama. He has taught for several universities in their life-long learning programs. John has recently produced a 45-minute film about the Army Air Forces' Air Photo Unit that documented historic 1946 atomic detonations.