Romania, 2009, 64 min, English subtitles
Production: Libra Film Productions

Special Achievement Award 2013

In 1950, the Russians discovered a rich uranium deposit in Apuseni Mountains, Romania. Shortly thereafter they developed a small city nearby and proceeded with the massive exploitation of the ore. The main objective: support of the Soviet military nuclear program. Almost two thousand Romanian miners were working day and night, around the clock, in four shifts. There was no concern for the labor or environmental protection. Most of the mine's employees didn't even know they were extracting uranium, but quartz. Now, in the former miner colony Baita Plai there are still 90 people living. A small and poor community in a place that seems devastated by an atomic bombing. Even though in february 2009 the uranium mine was officially decommissioned and the entire area entered in a environmental program, as an irony of the faith, the uranium comes back home as radioactive waste. By a Government decision, some galleries of the former uranium mine from Baita Plai were transformed into the National Radioactive Waste Storage.