Living with
Radiation
Logline
Nuclear energy has always been two things at once: the promise of limitless progress and the threat of total annihilation. Living with Radiation traces how science, geopolitics, industry, and public imagination became inseparably entangled around the most powerful — and most dangerous — force humanity has ever harnessed.
Series Overview
Living with Radiation is a 3–4 part investigative documentary series that examines the double-edged nature of nuclear energy — from the early fascination with radioactive materials and their seemingly miraculous properties, through the construction of the atomic bomb, to today's repositioning of nuclear power as a "clean" solution to the climate crisis.
The series traces the full arc of humanity's relationship with radiation: how it has been celebrated, exploited, feared, concealed, and now once again re-sold as salvation. It foregrounds the contradictions, the hidden costs, and the enduring questions the nuclear age continues to raise — with particular urgency at a moment when the world is confronting nuclear risk on multiple fronts simultaneously.
Inspired by and developed in close collaboration with the acclaimed book Living with Radiation by Dr. Maria Rentetzi (livingwithradiation.eu).
Why This Series — Why Now
The Middle East & the Iranian Nuclear Dimension
The ongoing confrontation between Iran and Western powers over Iran's nuclear programme has placed the question of proliferation back at the centre of global politics. Military tensions, the fragility of diplomatic frameworks, and the risk of a regional nuclear cascade are now live policy concerns across governments, energy markets, and international institutions.
Geopolitical Realignment & the Ukraine Precedent
The war in Ukraine placed active nuclear power plants in a combat zone for the first time in history — and renewed fears of nuclear escalation among major powers. Russia's nuclear rhetoric and the targeting of nuclear infrastructure established a troubling precedent: that nuclear facilities are now instruments of geopolitical pressure.
The Climate-Nuclear Convergence
Faced with the accelerating climate crisis, governments across Europe, North America, and Asia are actively rehabilitating nuclear power as a "green" energy solution. New reactor technologies — including small modular reactors — are being fast-tracked into national energy strategies. Yet the environmental, social, and ethical costs remain poorly understood by the public.
AI, Autonomy & the Control Problem
Artificial intelligence and autonomous weapons systems are raising urgent new questions about nuclear safety protocols, command-and-control structures, and the reliability of early-warning systems. As decision timelines compress and algorithmic systems enter the strategic space, the margin for error — always terrifyingly thin — is narrowing further.
Key Story Engines
War and Peace — The Blurred Line
From nuclear plants caught in active conflict zones to the long-running confrontation over Iran's enrichment programme: the civilian and military faces of nuclear technology have never been truly separate. The series examines how the "dual-use" problem was built into the nuclear age from the start — and why no arms control framework has yet managed to resolve it.
Iran and the Proliferation Dilemma
Iran's nuclear programme sits at the intersection of sovereignty, security, and international law — and has become one of the defining geopolitical flashpoints of the 21st century. The series explores the deeper historical and structural forces behind the proliferation dilemma: why nations pursue nuclear capability, and what the consequences are when military and civilian nuclear programmes become impossible to distinguish.
The Allure of Radiation
From radium-infused cosmetics and health tonics in the early 20th century, to nuclear medicine — and the secret experiments carried out on unsuspecting citizens. How did a lethal force become a consumer product, a medical miracle, and an instrument of state deception?
The Legacy of Disaster
Hiroshima. Chernobyl. Fukushima. Three catastrophes, three different eras, three different political systems — and strikingly similar patterns of denial, concealment, and official reassurance. What did we truly learn? And what have we chosen to forget?
Geopolitics and Control
Non-proliferation treaties, strategic agreements, and international institutions striving to regulate the unregulatable. The IAEA's structural limitations, the NPT's growing weaknesses, and the expanding roster of states operating outside or at the margins of the international framework. How robust are the systems designed to prevent nuclear catastrophe — and who holds the real power within them?
The Green Narrative
Nuclear energy as a "clean" solution to the climate crisis: a promise that carries profound environmental, social, and ethical costs that rarely reach the public debate. The series examines who benefits from the rehabilitation of nuclear power — and who bears the risk.
Invisible Workers & Colonial Histories
From uranium mines in Africa to hazardous processing facilities, the global nuclear industry has been sustained by hidden labour and postcolonial extraction. These are the stories that rarely appear in the official history of the atom.
Key Expert
Maria Rentetzi is a historian of science specialising in nuclear diplomacy, the history of technoscience, and gender in science. She is Professor at Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) Erlangen-Nürnberg and currently a science diplomacy fellow at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), Aarhus University. She has previously held academic positions in Berlin and Athens.
Trained as a physicist and later in science and technology studies, Prof. Rentetzi is the recipient of a prestigious ERC Consolidator Grant for her research project on radiation protection and the IAEA. She has published widely on the history of radioactivity, gender and science, and the history of tobacco in Greece, and is regarded as one of Europe's leading authorities on science diplomacy and science advice at both national and EU level.
Her acclaimed book Living with Radiation (livingwithradiation.eu) forms the scholarly foundation of this series — providing a level of intellectual rigour and original source access that distinguishes the project from conventional science-documentary treatments of the nuclear question.
Why This Series Travels
The Defining Story of Our Era — Relevant in Every Territory
Nuclear risk — whether in the form of proliferation, military confrontation, energy policy, or environmental legacy — is a story that resonates in every territory and every market. The ongoing tensions around Iran's nuclear programme, the weaponisation of nuclear infrastructure in active conflict zones, and the global push to revive nuclear energy as a climate solution have placed this subject at the top of the international news agenda.
Universal Subject, Internationally Resonant Locations
The nuclear story touches the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Japan, Ukraine, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and multiple nations across Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. Every territory has a stake. Every audience has a reason to watch — whether from the perspective of energy policy, regional security, environmental risk, or historical reckoning.
Science + History + Current Affairs
The series occupies a rare editorial space that bridges three distinct programming genres — science documentary, historical investigation, and current affairs analysis. This gives commissioners and schedulers exceptional flexibility in positioning and audience targeting, from history and science channels to current affairs and general factual slots.
Character-Driven Storytelling
Alongside the expert narrative, the series foregrounds the human dimensions of the nuclear age: the workers, the survivors, the scientists, the diplomats, and the communities whose stories have been systematically overlooked. This human access extends the series' reach well beyond specialist science or history audiences into the broader factual and documentary marketplace.
Production Approach
The series is designed to meet premium international factual broadcast standards across every element of production.
- Original research and script development in close collaboration with Prof. Rentetzi, drawing on primary archival sources, previously classified documents, and access to key international institutions including the IAEA.
- Multi-country location filming across relevant sites — nuclear facilities, disaster zones, archive repositories, and communities affected by the nuclear industry across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
- Newly digitised and rarely seen archival footage and photography, providing fresh visual perspectives that distinguish the series from existing nuclear documentary treatments.
- High-end CGI, motion graphics, and scientific visualisation to clarify technical concepts, illustrate historical events, and communicate risk and scale to general audiences.
- Expert colorization and visual restoration of historical archive material, delivering a cinematic visual treatment suited to contemporary premium factual audiences.
Together, these elements position Living with Radiation not as a conventional science explainer or archive-led history documentary, but as a premium investigative factual series with strong editorial clarity, genuine intellectual authority, and real visual ambition.
Track Record
Gullwing Productions brings established international broadcast experience in premium factual content with proven cross-territory appeal.
Its previous series, Wings of the Great War (10 × 48'), secured broadcast deals across four continents through active international sales activity, with confirmed buyers including:
Screener interest was registered from broadcasters across Europe, Asia, the Middle East, the Americas, and Africa — confirming Gullwing's ability to develop factual programming with genuine global market relevance.
Screeners & Materials
A demo reel is available to communicate the project's visual direction, editorial treatment, and overall production ambition.
It should be understood as a development-stage creative reference rather than a fixed template or final screener of the completed series. The material remains open to editorial refinement and creative collaboration with partners, allowing the final treatment to evolve in line with broadcaster, co-production, or distribution discussions.
Development-stage demo reel available upon request