El viaje del uranio español en los años sesenta: significados y materialidades de un objeto híbrido / The journey of Spanish uranium in the sixties meanings and materialities of a hybrid object

En 1966, 137 toneladas de mineral de uranio español llegaron al puerto de Nueva Orleans procedentes del puerto de Cádiz. En este artículo quiero utilizar este viaje que conectó agentes políticos, industriales y empresariales con capacidades y experiencias técnicas, para explorar el uranio como un objeto híbrido —físico, técnico y diplomático—. El uranio conectó los intereses de las autoridades franquistas con los de los científicos y empresarios de la industria eléctrica. Sirvió al régimen de Franco para formar investigadores en nuevos métodos y prácticas experimentales y también para popularizar las políticas e ideologías atómicas de Estados Unidos. Al tiempo que alimentó los reactores nucleares, el uranio generó nuevos espacios disciplinares, modificó paisajes y diseñó nuevas cartografías industriales y administrativas. Además de ser una pieza clave en la política exterior del régimen franquista —le sirvió al régimen español para alinearse con el pensamiento occidental imperante sobre los usos civiles de la energía nuclear—, internamente sirvió para abandonar los discursos autárquicos y reforzar el poder de los tecnócratas, que utilizaron la energía atómica para transformar la producción eléctrica española. Este viaje cambió la materialidad del mineral de uranio, su física y su química, y también sus significados. (AU)

In 1966, 137 tons of Spanish uranium ore arrived at the port of New Orleans from the port of Cádiz. In this paper, I want to use this trip, which involved political, industrial, and business agents as well as technical capabilities, to explore the uranium as a hybrid object - physical, technical and diplomatic. This material connected the interests of the Franco authorities, scientists, and businessmen from the electrical industry. It served the Franco regime in training researchers, in buying and importing technologies, methods and experimental practices, and in introducing ways to popularize atomic policies and ideologies from the United States. Uranium was a fuel that not only powered nuclear reactor but also fed new disciplinary spaces, modified landscapes, and sketched new industrial and administrative cartographies. Besides being a key piece of the Franco regime’s foreign policy —it was useful to the Spanish regime to align itself with prevailing Western thought on the civil uses of nuclear energy— it served internally to effectively abandon autarchic discourses and strengthen the power of the technocrats, who used atomic energy to transform Spanish electrical production. The materiality of uranium ore changed with travel and also its meanings. (AU)

Uso de radioisótopos en medicina. El rol de la Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica en su impulso (1950-1982) / Use of radioisotopes in medicine. The role of the National Atomic Energy Comission in its development (1950-1982)

La política de desarrollo autónomo desplegada por la Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica al cabo de sus primeras tres décadas de vida, condujo a la expansión y enraizamiento del sector nuclear argentino en diversas areas. Con respecto al área médica, si bien el uso de radioisótopos con fines clínicos, así como de investigación contaba al momento de la emergencia del sector nuclear, con un significante número de antecedentes en el país, con la institucionalización de las actividades nucleares, a partir de la creación de la Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica en 1950, el desarrollo de las aplicaciones nucleares con fines médicos cobraría un fuerte impulso. Esto fue así, en la medida en que se destinaron esfuerzos en: investigación y capacitación, abastecimiento de radioisótopos y puesta en marcha de centros clínicos de medicina nuclear. En este artículo, entonces, veremos como la búsqueda de capacidades científico-tecnológicas propias tuvo cierto paralelismo en el área médica, logrando incipientes descubrimientos científicos, el autoabastecimiento de radioisótopos y la operación de dos centros clínicos que prestaban asistencia a pacientes

During its first three decades of life, the National Atomic Energy Comission unrolled an autonomous policy of development that lead to the expansion and embedment of the Argentinian nuclear sector in different fields. Although in the medical field, the use of radioisotopes for research and clinical purposes held, at the emergence of the nuclear sector, with a significant number of studies, with the institutionalization of nuclear activities, with the creation of the National Atomic Energy Comission in 1950, the development of nuclear applications for medical purposes gained great impulse. This was possible, due to the assignment of resources in three strategic lines: investigation and professional training, provision of radioisotopes and administration and operation of clinical centers of nuclear medicine. In this article, then, we will see how the quest for autonomous technology development had its side effects in the medical area, leading to important scientific discoveries, the self-supply of radioisotopes and the operation of two clinic centers of nuclear medicine that provided care to patients

The emergence and pitfalls of international tissue banking.

The rapid growth of tissue banking and associated international organisations following the fall of the Berlin wall in 1991 is described. This surge in collaboration led to a world-wide constructive movement to use and to produce human tissues. As the years progressed industrialisation, led by the USA, improved the quality of tissue allografts but led higher costs and consolidation within the developing industry. The growth of litigation more than kept pace with the industrial progress. One landmark case is described, the outcome of which could revolutionise the current practices now applied to eliminate possible viral contamination of implanted tissue grafts.

Professor Glyn O. Phillip's legacy within the IAEA programme on radiation and tissue banking.

Professor Phillips began his involvement in the implementation of this important IAEA programme, insisting that there were advantages to be gained by using the ionizing radiation technique to sterilize human and animal tissues, based on the IAEA experience gained in the sterilization of medical products. The outcome of the implementation of the IAEA programme on radiation and tissue banking demonstrated that Professor Phillips was right in his opinion.

Prensa y tecnología en la España de Franco: del secreto a la política atómica pública / Press and Technology in Franco's Spain: from secret to public atomic energy policy

Los discursos que circularon en España en los medios de comunicación impresos (ABC, La Vanguardia y el YA) y audiovisuales (NO-DO) con motivo de la primera Conferencia internacional de usos pacíficos de la energía atómica celebrada en Ginebra en agosto de1955, tuvieron un papel activo en el diseño de las políticas -no sólo nucleares- españolas y en la construcción de la representación pública de la energía nuclear. Las oportunidades y promesas que anunciaban los usos civiles de la energía atómica cautivaron a autoridades, científicos e industriales de la dictadura y también a los medios de comunicación. El tratamiento mediático de la conferencia contribuyó a la apertura del régimen franquista al tiempo que fue construyendo la imagen pública de lo nuclear. España compró e importó tecnología, métodos, prácticas experimentales, y también formas de popularización, políticas e ideología atómicas. En este artículo propongo una reflexión sobre prensa, tecnología y poder político (AU)

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Determining Nuclear Fingerprints: Glove Boxes, Radiation Protection, and the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In a nuclear laboratory, a glove box is a windowed, sealed container equipped with two flexible gloves that allow the user to manipulate nuclear materials from the outside in an ostensibly safe environment. As a routine laboratory device, it invites neglect from historians and storytellers of science. Yet, since especially the Gulf War, glove boxes have put the interdependence of science, diplomacy, and politics into clear relief. Standing at the intersection of history of science and international history, technological materials and devices such as the glove box can provide penetrating insight into the role of international diplomatic organizations to the global circulation and control of scientific knowledge. The focus here is on the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Imaginaries of nuclear energy in the Portuguese parliament: Between promise, risk, and democracy.

This article explores the evolution of the nuclear energy debate and its associated controversies in the Portuguese parliament. The analysis focuses on the dictatorial regime of the New State (from the beginning of the nuclear program in 1951 until the 1974 revolution) and on the democratic period (post-1974). Portugal, as an exporting country of uranium minerals, significantly invested in the development of a national capacity in nuclear research, but never developed an endogenous nuclear power infrastructure. Through the analysis of parliamentary debates, this article characterizes the dynamic evolution of the Portuguese sociotechnical imaginary on nuclear energy and technology interlinked with ambivalent representations, including the promise of nuclear energy as key for the constitution of a technological Nation or as prompting new sociotechnical risks.

[For the Third Time in Chernobyl].

Noted Russian publicist, science historian and specialist in radioecology Zhores Aleksandrovich Medvedev shares its recollections on the residence in the zone of the Chernobyl accident, tells about the projects of co- vers over the destroyed reactor and discusses the prospects of atomic energy in Russia.

The Radium Terrors. Science Fiction and Radioactivity before the Bomb.

At the beginning of the 20th century the collective imagination was fascinated and terrified by the discovery of radium. A scientific imagery sprang up around radioactivity and was disseminated by public lectures and newspaper articles discussing the ambiguous power of this strange substance. It was claimed that radium could be used to treat cholera, typhus and tuberculosis, but at the same time there were warnings that it could be used for military purposes. The media and the scientists themselves employed a rich vocabulary influenced by religion, alchemy and magic. The ambivalent power of radioactive elements exerted a great influence on science fiction novelists. This paper will examine some significant works published in Europe, America and Russia during the first decades of the 20th century and their role in the creation of the complex imagery of radioactivity that seized the public imagination long before the invention of the atomic bomb.

Clouds, airplanes, trucks and people: carrying radioisotopes to and across Mexico.

The aim of this paper is to describe the early stages of Mexican nuclearization that took place in contact with radioisotopes. This history requires a multilayered narrative with an emphasis in North-South asymmetric relations, and in the value of education and training in the creation of international asymmetrical networks. Radioisotopes were involved in exchanges with the United States since the late 1940s, but also with Canada. We also describe the context of implementation of Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace initiative in Mexico that opened the door to training programs at both the Comisión Nacional de Energía Nuclear and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Radioisotopes became the best example of the peaceful applications of atomic energy, and as such they fitted the Mexican nuclearization process that was and still is defined by its commitment to pacifism. In 1955 Mexico became one of the 16 members of the atomic fallout network established by the United Nations. As part of this network, the first generation of Mexican (women) radio-chemists was trained. By the end of the 1960s, radioisotopes and biological markers were being produced in a research reactor, prepared and distributed by the CNEN within Mexico. We end up this paper with a brief reflection on North-South nuclear exchanges and the particularities of the Mexican case.

Across borders: science and technology during the Cold War. An introduction

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Clouds, airplanes, trucks and people: carrying radioisotopes to and across Mexico

The aim of this paper is to describe the early stages of Mexican nuclearization that took place in contact with radioisotopes. This history requires a multilayered narrative with an emphasis in North-South asymmetric relations, and in the value of education and training in the creation of international asymmetrical networks. Radioisotopes were involved in exchanges with the United States since the late 1940s, but also with Canada. We also describe the context of implementation of Eisenhower´s Atoms for Peace initiative in Mexico that opened the door to training programs at both the Comisión Nacional de Energía Nuclear and the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Radioisotopes became the best example of the peaceful applications of atomic energy, and as such they fitted the Mexican nuclearization process that was and still is defined by its commitment to pacifism. In 1955 Mexico became one of the 16 members of the atomic fallout network established by the United Nations. As part of this network, the first generation of Mexican (women) radio-chemists was trained. By the end of the 1960s, radioisotopes and biological markers were being produced in a research reactor, prepared and distributed by the CNEN within Mexico. We end up this paper with a brief reflection on North-South nuclear exchanges and the particularities of the Mexican case (AU)

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Transnational science and collaborative networks. The case of Genetics and Radiobiology in Mexico, 1950-1970

The transnational approach of the science and technology studies (S&TS) abandons the nation as a unit of analysis in order to understand the development of science history. It also abandons Euro-US-centred narratives in order to explain the role of international collaborative networks and the circulation of knowledge, people, artefacts and scientific practices. It is precisely under this perspective that the development of genetics and radiobiology in Mexico shall be analyzed, together with the pioneering work of the Mexican physician-turnedgeneticist Alfonso León de Garay who spent two years in the Galton Laboratory in London under the supervision of Lionel Penrose. Upon his return de Garay funded the Genetics and Radiobiology Program of the National Commission of Nuclear Energy based on local needs and the aim of working beyond geographical limitations to thus facilitate the circulation of knowledge, practices and people. The three main lines of research conducted in the years after its foundation that were in line with international projects while responding to the national context were, first, cytogenetic studies of certain abnormalities, and the cytogenetics and anthropological studies of the Olympic Games held in Mexico in 1968; second, the study of the effects of radiation on hereditary material; and third, the study of population genetics in Drosophila and in Mexican indigenous groups. The program played a key role in reshaping the scientific careers of Mexican geneticists, and in transferring locally sourced research into broader networks. This case shows the importance of international collaborative networks and circulation in the constitution of national scientific elites, and also shows the national and transnational concerns that shaped local practices (AU)

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Human population studies and the World Health Organization

This essay draws attention to the role of the WHO in shaping research agendas in the biomedical sciences in the postwar era. It considers in particular the genetic studies of human populations that were pursued under the aegis of the WHO from the late 1950s to 1970s. The study provides insights into how human and medical genetics entered the agenda of the WHO. At the same time, the population studies become a focus for tracking changing notions of international relations, cooperation, and development and their impact on research in biology and medicine in the post-World War II era. After a brief discussion of the early history of the WHO and its position in Cold War politics, the essay considers the WHO program in radiation protection and heredity and how the genetic study of «vanishing» human populations and a world-wide genetic study of newborns fitted this broader agenda. It then considers in more detail the kind of support offered by the WHO for these projects. The essay highlights the role of single individuals in taking advantage of WHO support for pushing their research agendas while establishing a trend towards cooperative international projects in biology (AU)

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Quickening nature’s pulse: atomic agriculture at the International Atomic Energy Agency

Mutation breeders in the 1960s seemed poised to use atomic energy to speed up mutation rates in plants in order to develop new crop varieties, for the benefit of all people. Although skepticism had slowed this work in the United States, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nurtured the scientific field, its community of experts, and an imagined version of the future that put humans in control of their destiny. The IAEA acted as a center of dissemination and support for experts and ideas even when they had fallen from favor elsewhere. Through the lens of the IAEA, plant breeding bore the appearance of a socially progressive, ultra-modern science destined to alleviate population pressures. Administrators at the IAEA also were desperate for success stories, hoping to highlight mutation plant breeding as a potential solution to the world’s ills. The community of mutation plant breeders gained a lifeline from the consistent clarion call from the Vienna-based agency to use atomic energy to understand the natural world and quicken its pulse with radioisotopes (AU)

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[Living without atomic power? Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker as expert in the nuclear energy debate of the 1970's]. / Ohne Atomkraft leben? Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker als Experte in der Kernenergiedebatte der 1970er Jahre.

Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker crossed the boundaries separating science, politics and the public sphere. In this he was led by the conviction that scientists in the modern 'technical age' are responsible for consequences resulting from their applied knowledge. Weizsäcker tried to introduce his knowledge into the policy process by advising politicians or by using the public sphere, thus applying pressure on politics. This was not only true for the 'Göttinger Erklärung' in 1957 but also for his engagement in the nuclear energy debate of the 1970s. Influenced by the 'Limits to Growth' discourse, Weizsäcker more and more gravitated towards an ecological world view and increasingly questioned material growth as well as a techno-scientific based understanding of progress. Weizsäcker thought about risks of the technical age in general and of the use of nuclear energy in particular. In the light of a growing fragmentation of scientific authority, Weizsäcker revealed uncertainty as he became fully aware that expertise cannot be based on scientific reason and cannot code the problems in terms of truth, but is inextricably linked with value spheres and contingencies. Nevertheless, his expertise was utilized as he encouraged parts of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) around Erhard Eppler to think about alternatives in energy policy.

[V.I.Vernadskii's theory of the biosphere and modern problems of radioecology].

The importance of Vernadsky's scientific heritage for the present stage of science development was substantiated. His role in the formation of radioecology as an independent scientific discipline was emphasized. The ecological consequences of an anthropogenic increase of the radiation background and the prospects of nuclear energy development were considered.

[D.P.Zuikhin and his contribution to the establishment and development of the system of medical maintenance of nuclear submarines personnel].

A highly qualified physician, an outstanding leader, a scientist Dmitry Zuikhin (1924-1988) was directly involved into establishment of a system of medical support for submariners in the sea and on shore, he proved the necessity of forces and means for the medical service fleet. He was a pioneer in this challenging and new field of naval medicine. His energy, perseverance and determination helped to establish in the early 1960 a system of medical support for nuclear submarines personnel, which was subsequently implemented in all associations and connections of nuclear submarines of the Northern and Pacific fleets.