80 years since the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Tom Heap and Helen Czerski ask how our relationship with nuclear power has evolved.

At 8.15 on the morning of the 6th of August 1945 a new era began for this planet. For the first time humankind had the power not just to exploit or damage nature, but to destroy it utterly.

Tom and Helen are joined by Mark Lynas, author of Six Minutes to Winter: Nuclear War and How to Avoid It and by Professor Timothy Mousseau of the University of South Carolina, a biologist who has studied the environmental impact of the nuclear disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima. Also in the studio is Dr Fiona Rayment, President of the Nuclear Institute.

Producer: Alasdair Cross

Assistant Producer: Toby Field

Special thanks to Archie McWatt of the University of the West of England

Rare Earth is produced in association with the Open University