Néstor Herran

Isotope networks: Training, sales and publications, 1946-1965

The aim of this paper is to provide an assessment of the spread of isotope-related techniques in Western Europe and the USA in the two first decades after World War II, by focusing on structural features. In particular, I analyse three major components of the European «isotope industry»: radioisotope distribution networks, the establishment of training sites and publications in which isotopes played some role as the object of study or research tools. This study leads to an assessment of the importance of industrial applications of isotopes in this period, in relation to biomedical ones, and provides with a transnational comparison in terms of productivity in material resources, workforce and knowledge.

Tracers of modern technoscience

Together with genes, drugs or standardized laboratory mice, isotopes might well be considered amongst the scientific objects that shaped science, technology, and medicine in the 20th century 1. Isotopes are forms of the same element that differ in the number of neutrons in their nuclei. Chemically identical yet physically distinct, ever since the end of World War II they have been widely applied to scientific research, medical diagnosis and therapy, and industrial control processes. The production, distribution and uses of isotopes have therefore borne witness to key aspects of modern technoscience, such as the role of state agencies vis-à-vis private companies and the market, or the relation between science, politics and the military. Affording a specific view of these developments, isotopes work as tracers of modern technoscience that invite historical research. This invitation has not altogether been lost on historians of science and technology. A number of studies, some by contributors to this volume, tell us about their role in the establishment and legitimisation of national nuclear programmes, or the creation of disciplines such as biochemistry and molecular biology. These studies are referred to below, in connection with the main themes of this collection. Still missing, however, is a comparative and comprehensive transnational approach to the rise and impact of isotope science. John Krige recently exemplified such an approach in the form of a «Cold War fable based on fact», which traced the journey of a sample of

“Unscare” and Conceal: The United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation and the Origin of International Radiation Monitoring

On December 3, 1956, the General Assembly of the United Nations established the Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR) to collect and evaluate information on the worldwide levels and the effects of ionizing radiations. The committee, which was compelled to present a complete report to the UN General Assembly by late 1958, became a key space for international scientific exchange, setting of standards in radiological protection, and establishment of transnational networks of radiological monitoring. Nonetheless, its very creation, design, and operation were surrounded by controversy. Diplomatic tensions regarding nuclear disarmament, surveillance ambitions, and the interest in playing down a transnational collaborative project seeking to find out more about radioactive fallout shaped the structure and inner dealings of the committee.

Nuclear Markets, Nuclear Bodies

These recent books by Gabrielle Hecht and Angela Creager are welcome additions to the history of nuclear technology. At first glance, the topics they address seem the most disparate. Creager traces the spread of radioisotopes in American ColdWar life sciences and medicine. Hecht, on the other hand, offers a post-colonial analysis of uranium production in Africa. There is also a divergent selection of sources and approaches. Hecht’s book is primarily built on more than one hundred oral interviews with mine managers, engineers, doctors and workers, and uses the analytical concept of techno-politics—that is, the idea that technological choices are made in order to attain political goals—that she developed in The Radiance of France (MIT Press, 1998). Conversely, Creager’s provides an American-centred history, which draws extensively on Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) archives declassified by the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. Her approach is conceptually lighter, but no less consistent, as evidenced by her insights into the hidden motivations behind the promotion of radioisotopes in industry or into the changing regulations regarding human exposure to ionising radiation. Despite these apparently distinct outlooks, the main themes of both books are strikingly coincident. First, they share a common interest in the creation of markets around technological and scientific materials—uranium in Being Nuclear and radioisotopes in Life Atomic. Second, an important part of both books is devoted to the difficult implementation of regulations regarding human exposure to ionising radiation, as exemplified by Hecht’s study of occupational health regulations in uranium mines and Creager’s focus on workers, patients and populations affected by the proliferation of radioisotopes in clinics, laboratories and the environment. In both cases, the resulting analyses are particularly suggestive and refreshing, and raise new questions about the specificity of nuclear technologies in relation to broader historical developments, such as the transformations of European imperialism or the reconfiguration of capitalism in the “long 1960s.” Hecht’s tackling of uranium markets seeks to untangle uranium’s political economy and to challenge “conventional narratives of the ‘nuclear age’ as a technological and geopolitical rupture” (p. ix) by inscribing the history of uranium mining ambix, Vol. 61 No. 4, November, 2014, 407–410