“First things first,” says my interviewee. “Which side are you on?”

“Well,” I say, drawing out the last letter of the word into the distinctive sound of high-pitched prevaricating. “You see, it’s the playwright’s job not to take sides.”

The interviewee squints at me over the top of their glasses, unconvinced.

“I don’t believe that’s possible,” they say, frankly.

I squirm. I am at the home of a distinctly pro-nuclear scientist. I have come to ask them about their lived knowledge of the history of nuclear energy in Australia, most specifically their involvement with the failed attempt to put a nuclear power station on the headland at Murrays Beach in Jervis Bay. The wrong answer could see me politely shown the door.

“Put it this way,” I continue. “I’m more interested in you than I am in the issue.”

This seems to mollify them and the interview continues. They tell me about their early life and education, about the Gorton Government and the intervention of PM William McMahon. It is a thrilling, persuasive and genuinely riveting story of passion, dedication and sincerity of belief.

I go to the home of a staunchly anti-nuclear campaigner. I say, “What would you do if your granddaughter became pro-nuclear?”

“That would...