Do we have a responsibility to warn the future about radioactivity? And if we have that responsibility, do we have a right to create radioactive materials that could harm future generations in the first place?

These are the questions posed by the new observational documentary Containment, which will air on PBS’ Independent Lens tonight at 10pm ET. Although directors Peter Galison and Robb Moss don’t offer clear answers, their interviews with nuclear waste experts, policy directors, and people associated with and affected by nuclear sites are thorough and sober.

Containment focuses exclusively on the dangers of nuclear waste from both nuclear weapons projects and nuclear energy, often lumping the two endeavors together in a way that can come across as unjustly censuring nuclear energy, whose benefits in the face of climate change are scarcely mentioned. But ultimately the message seems to be that a rational and pragmatic approach to storing waste, unclouded by delusion that any site can be completely and totally safe, is necessary.