(CEA/DAM) a Key Player in Developing France's Nuclear Deterrent
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The Military Applications Division (CEA/DAM) a key player in developing France's nuclear deterrent a key player in developing France's nuclear deterrent nuclear France's in developing player a key From the pioneers of nuclear physics Military Applications Division (DAM) to the Simulation Programme www-dam.cea.fr ISBN : 978-2-9574210-1-5 http://www.barcode-generator.de The Military Applications Division (CEA/DAM) - (CEA/DAM) Division MilitaryThe Applications The Military Applications Division (CEA/DAM) a key player in developing France's nuclear deterrent From the pioneers of nuclear physics to the Simulation Programme CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 5 FROM BECQUEREL TO GERBOISE BLEUE (1896 – 1960) Early scientific discoveries 12 French nuclear scientists in the Resistance 14 Setting up the CEA 18 The plan to develop a French nuclear industry 21 Towards the First French nuclear test 38 CHAPTER 2 49 FROM THE ATOMIC BOMB TO THERMONUCLEAR WEAPONS (1960 - 1968) Nuclear defence and planning 54 The emergence of France's nuclear strategy 58 The DAM: development and growth 62 Access to the H bomb and the key role of nuclear testing 66 CHAPTER 3 71 CONSOLIDATING FRANCE'S DEFENCE NUCLEAR CAPABILITY (1969 - 1981) Development of France's strategic Triad 76 Development of tactical nuclear weapons 80 Nuclear testing strategy 84 CHAPTER 4 89 SHIFTS AND CONTINUITY (1981-1996) Modernizing the Nuclear Forces and the end of the Cold War 94 France's disarmament policy 98 From the moratorium to the definitive end to nuclear tests 104 CHAPTER 5 107 SIMULATION, THE ULTIMATE TOOL GUARANTEEING THE FRENCH NUCLEAR WEAPONS SINCE 1996 Developing the Simulation Programme 118 The CEA/DAM's opening policy 126 The DAM, a key player in France's defence system 130 FROM BECQUEREL TO GERBOISE BLEUE 18961 - 1960 In this first chapter, we will focus on the early days Great Britain and then in North America. In so doing, of nuclear energy in France. We will show how, at they also carried on the spirit of the French Resistance. international level, teams of French scientists were After the war, France was the first nation in the world at the forefront of nuclear physics from the very to set up a civil organization to lead research on civil beginning. Over a period of less than fifty years, they and military applications of atomic power. The CEA made a series of major breakthroughs. French scientists (the French Atomic Energy Commission) was created discovered the phenomenon of natural radioactivity at in October 1945. the turn of the century, followed, in the mid-1930s, by the discovery of artificial radioactivity, and then went Above all, the priority was to rebuild the nation, based 6 on to register secret patents just before World War II on a particularly effective tool: the five-year plan. In broke out. One of these patents already looked ahead 1952, the first five-year plan relative to nuclear energy to the possibility of making an atomic weapon. set out the objectives and enable the scientific and industrial drive that would give France access to World War II put a brake on French pioneering research, nuclear power. but it did not stop it completely. Indeed, a small team of nuclear physicists belonging to the Free French Forces (France Libre) pursued these studies in secret, first in 7 Just two years later, a new key development took place, with the political decision to launch a French nuclear defence Programme. This decision-making process coincided with progress in scientific and industrial research being carried out in France. It illustrates the political will to give France a nuclear arsenal (nuclear weapons and nuclear-powered submarines), based on the premise that France would not unilaterally accept to abandon the development of a weapon that other World Powers possessed. This political decision was backed by immediate funding for developing the "new weapon", together with a series of common protocols and joint committees set up to ensure coordination between the Armed Forces and the CEA's Military Applications Division (DAM). While the DAM was tasked to design and manufacture an experimental bomb, it was the Armed Forces' job to plan and organize the logistics for nuclear tests in the field. Thanks to such coordination, the first French nuclear test was successfully carried out on 13 February 1960. Chapter 1 - From Becquerel to Gerboise Bleue (1896 - 1960) 1896 1903 1911 1939 Radiation emitted Nobel Prize for Nobel Prize for Three secret patents by uranium salts Physics awarded Chemistry awarded registered by Frédéric discovered by to Henri Becquerel to Marie Curie for her Joliot's team at the French physicist and to Pierre and work on radium and Collège de France Henri Becquerel Marie Curie for their polonium. That same work on natural year, she set up the radioactivity Institut du Radium 1945 8 1898 Creation of the Radium and polonium 1934 French Atomic discovered by French Energy Commission physicists Pierre Artificial radioactivity (Commissariat à and Marie Curie discovered by the l’Énergie Atomique, physicists Irène CEA) by General Curie, Pierre and de Gaulle Marie's daughter, and Frédéric Joliot; they received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry the following year, for their research on this subject Chapter 1 - From Becquerel to Gerboise Bleue (1896 - 1960) Pierre and Marie Curie ↙ in their laboratory, 1898 9 Chapter 1 - From Becquerel to Gerboise Bleue (1896 - 1960) 1946 1951 1954 1956 1958 1959 Frédéric Joliot was Francis Perrin took Pierre Mendès Second The CEA's Military The Limeil Centre was appointed High over from Frédéric France launched Memorandum of Applications attached to CEA/DAM Commissioner Joliot, and Pierre the decision-making Understanding Division (DAM) for Atomic Energy Guillaumat from process for nuclear between the Armed was set up and Raoul Dautry Raoul Dautry armament, which Forces and the CEA 1960 became Chairman included setting (1957-1961) Decision made by reporting to the up the Bureau Félix Gaillard aimed France's first Government 1952 d’Études Générales at enabling France experimental (BEG, the General 1957 to prepare to carry nuclear bomb Félix Gaillard Studies Office), out, on orders, a was detonated in 1948 presented the the precursor Second five-year nuclear test in the Reggane (Sahara first five-year of the DAM plan relative to first quarter of 1960 Desert in Algeria), ZOE, France's first plan relative to nuclear energy under General de experimental reactor, nuclear energy General de Gaulle Gaulle's presidency, 10 went critical 1955 Creation of two confirmed Félix on 13 February more CEA Centres: Gaillard’s decision Albert Buchalet Moronvilliers, annex was appointed as to the Vaujours Director of the BEG Centre, and Valduc, annex to the BIII up First Memorandum of to 1961 Understanding signed between the Armed Forces and the CEA (1955-1957), together with the Plan for the development of military applications of atomic energy Creation of two CEA Centres: Bruyères- le-Châtel, known as "BIII", and Vaujours, a former Central powder laboratory 1956 Chapter 1 - From Becquerel to Gerboise Bleue (1896 - 1960) 11 ↗ Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie in their laboratory, 1934 Chapter 1 - From Becquerel to Gerboise Bleue (1896 - 1960) FROM BECQUEREL TO GERBOISE BLEUE 1896 - 1960 EARLY SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES Since the end of the nineteenth century, France nucleus fission was demonstrated first in Scandinavia, had played a leading role in the discovery of atomic to where the Austrian physicists Otto Frisch and Lise energy. The physicist, Henri Becquerel, discovered Meitner had emigrated, and then by Frédéric Joliot. radiation emitted from uranium salts in 1896. This was a major breakthrough because it demonstrated the All these fundamental scientific advances were then 12 phenomenon of natural radioactivity. Two years later, taken up by the military, especially since another world radium and polonium were discovered by Pierre and war seemed imminent. Nonetheless, at the beginning Marie Curie. of 1939, the traditional international exchanges between scientists went ahead. Leo Szilard, a Hungarian physicist In 1903, these three physicists received the Nobel who had fled to the United States, was the first, in a Prize for Physics for their pioneering work on natural letter, to warn his fellow physicists about the major radioactivity. In 1911, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was consequences of the on chain reactions. awarded to Marie Curie for her research on radium and polonium. The same year, she founded the Institut du To begin with, Frédéric Joliot was surprised and disagreed Radium, to train radiology nurses who were to care for with the content of this letter. Thus, in March 1939, wounded soldiers during the First World War. together with his colleagues at the Collège de France, Hans Halban and Lew Kowarski, he published a paper In 1934, the French physicists Irène Curie, daughter on the discovery of secondary neutrons. A month later, of Pierre and Marie Curie, and her husband Frédéric they calculated that over three neutrons are produced Joliot discovered artificial radioactivity. A year later, they per fission reaction (in fact, there are 2.5). received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for their research. In December 1938, two German chemists, Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann, described the chemical aspects of fission. A month later, the physical principle of uranium Chapter 1 - From Becquerel to Gerboise Bleue (1896 - 1960) As of May 1939, Joliot's team agreed to break with the policy of sharing research results universally practiced up until then, and began to implement a secrecy policy, even going so far as registering patents for their inventions. This new policy was decided partly due to concerns over intellectual property rights in view of future industrial applications and partly because of the strategic nature of the team's discoveries.