Rickover: The Birth of Nuclear Power

2014 • 115 minutes
4.5
31 reviews
Eligible
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About this movie

Combative, provocative, and searingly blunt, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover was a flamboyant maverick and a unique American hero. When few thought it possible, then-Captain Rickover harnessed the power of the atom to drive the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, whose trip under the polar ice pack was one of the great adventure stories of the 1950s. Later, Rickover built the world's first nuclear aircraft carrier and the first commercial nuclear power plant at Shippingport, PA. Rickover's achievements made him into a national celebrity, and he appeared on the cover of Time magazine. Today, questions about nuclear power have arisen again, in the wake of the disaster in Japan, yet nuclear power remains one of the main alternatives to fossil fuels. Many wonder whether America can maintain its technological pre-eminence and whether we can still build and manage large-scale projects. To understand these issues, RICKOVER considers the story of the man who created the Nuclear Navy as well as the civilian nuclear power industry: Hyman G. Rickover.

Ratings and reviews

4.5
31 reviews
C J
September 1, 2017
As a product of the Nuclear Navy, I can still see Rickover's attitude reflected in the navy today. It makes me so happy to see a true American hero with the balls to tell the truth to anyone, and it makes makes me even happier to see that the Nuclear Navy has still not lost it's way.
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Steven Andresen
December 17, 2014
Rickover comes across as being very crass, but he was a no bullshit dont wate my time military genius. Hated by his peers and superiors, but always spoke his mind of the facts and truth. One of the few who ever had the balls to stand up to the president and speak the truth openly.
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Kenneth Chester
January 5, 2015
Working in Nuclear Power I see the fingerprints of this extraordinary man. Very good movie.
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