{"id":1149,"date":"2026-05-18T13:30:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T13:30:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/nuclear-societies\/?page_id=1149"},"modified":"2026-05-19T10:18:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T10:18:16","slug":"decommissioning-a-dream","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/nuclear-societies\/decommissioning-a-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"Decommissioning a Dream"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>A story of power, purpose and pride<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:25px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-video is-provider-vimeo wp-block-embed-vimeo wp-embed-aspect-21-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"iframe-container\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"embed-responsive-item\"  title=\"Decommissioning a Dream\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/995758869?dnt=1&amp;app_id=122963\" width=\"500\" height=\"209\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Decommissioning a Dream&nbsp;<\/em>is a short documentary film set in the Lithuanian border town of Visaginas \u2013 a planned town built to house the workers and builders of the Ignalina II nuclear power plant. The plant is currently being dismantled, in many cases by its former builders and their descendants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Situated near the Latvian and Belarusian borders, the Ignalina twin-reactor plant had big ambitions, and would, after the breakup of the Soviet Union, have secured energy independence for Lithuania. However the idea of a Soviet-built nuclear power plant in the heart of Europe that shared the same RBMK reactor technology as the ill-fated Chernobyl proved unpalatable for Brussels, and Ignalina II\u2019s decommissioning became a central condition of Lithuania\u2019s accession to the European Union.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The impact of the plant\u2019s closure on the town of Visaginas became the subject of Laurie Griffiths and Jonty Tacon\u2019s photographic study and\u00a0Leila\u00a0Dawney\u2019s ethnographic research in 2014-16. As the team immersed themselves in the community of Russian-speaking nationals who lived there &#8211; many of them current and former workers at the plant &#8211; and gained access to the power station itself, a picture of loss, pride, community and fractured identity emerged.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"595\" height=\"842\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/nuclear-societies\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/319\/2026\/05\/c198bb46-a3b8-4868-930f-c85d5ea21bd2.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1277\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/nuclear-societies\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/319\/2026\/05\/c198bb46-a3b8-4868-930f-c85d5ea21bd2.png 595w, https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/nuclear-societies\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/319\/2026\/05\/c198bb46-a3b8-4868-930f-c85d5ea21bd2-212x300.png 212w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 595px) 100vw, 595px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p><em>Decommissioning a Dream&nbsp;<\/em>has been shortlisted at Brighton Rocks! Film Festival, UK, Uranium Film Festival, Brazil and Germany, and Nida Photographic Festival, Lithuania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Credits<\/strong><br>Directed, edited and produced by Laurie Griffiths and Jonty Tacon<br>Original Music Score by Luke Thomas<br>Academic Advisor&nbsp;by Leila&nbsp;Dawney<br>Cinematography by Laurie Griffiths, Jonty Tacon and Sam Risley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A story of power, purpose and pride Decommissioning a Dream&nbsp;is a short documentary film set in the Lithuanian border town of Visaginas \u2013 a planned town built to house the workers and builders of the Ignalina II nuclear power plant. The plant is currently being dismantled, in many cases by its former builders and their [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2831,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Decommissioning a Dream - Nuclear Societies Research Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/nuclear-societies\/decommissioning-a-dream\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Decommissioning a Dream - Nuclear Societies Research Group\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A story of power, purpose and pride Decommissioning a Dream&nbsp;is a short documentary film set in the Lithuanian border town of Visaginas \u2013 a planned town built to house the workers and builders of the Ignalina II nuclear power plant. 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