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A Frightening Nuclear Legacy at One Level, Atoms for Peace Was About Cooperation

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A Frightening Nuclear Legacy at One Level, Atoms for Peace Was About Cooperation Vol. 64, No. 4, pp. 42-47 DOI: 10.2968/064004010 so many ages in sweat and hunger to the wheel of material existence.” A frightening nuclear legacy At one level, Atoms for Peace was about cooperation. But Atoms for Peace Early expansion of nuclear energy was at its core a Cold War gambit. One purpose was to establish and strength- resulted in dangerous dispersal of fissile en strategic ties, especially with devel- oping countries, by promising to share material and weapons proliferation — what many people saw as the most mod- ern of technologies. Atoms for Peace threats that persist today. Is it possible also served a policy to build domestic support and foreign markets for U.S. nu- to prevent history from repeating itself? clear technology. Competing Atoms for Peace pro- grams emerged as the Soviet Union and By ZIa MIan & alExandER GlaSER other Western countries, notably Cana- da, Britain, France, and later Germany, sought clients and markets for their na- scent nuclear industries. These coun- tries saw providing nuclear research reactors, fuel for these reactors, and training scientists and engineers in the new technology as the key to shaping po- litical relationships with clients, as well as the choices that developing countries would make about what nuclear facilities to buy and where to buy them. Between 1955 and 1958, the United shadow looms over the would share its nuclear knowledge and States signed more than 40 nuclear coop- possibilityA of a nuclear-powered future. help the world “to apply atomic ener- eration agreements with a range of gov- It is the legacy of the first expansion of gy to the needs of agriculture, medicine, ernments, including apartheid South Afri- nuclear technology, which started in the and other peaceful activities. Its special ca, Francisco Franco’s fascist government mid-1950s and lasted roughly a decade. purpose would be to provide abundant in Spain, the shah of Iran, Pakistan, India, Fifty years later, the world is still strug- electrical energy in the power-starved Israel, and many others. Other would- gling with the inadvertent, and at the time areas of the world.” be suppliers, with more limited political, unimaginable, consequences of those ini- The idea of a wondrous future pow- economic, and technical resources, found tial efforts to create the nuclear age. Nu- ered by atomic energy was by then al- fewer takers—although some countries clear facilities, technologies, and exper- ready 50 years old. Soon after Fredrick signed up with multiple nuclear donors. tise, it turns out, often outlive regimes and Soddy and Ernest Rutherford discov- The Soviet Union signed agreements with political and strategic relationships, and ered in 1901 that radioactivity involved China and North Korea; France assisted can have unexpected impacts beyond pol- the release of energy, Soddy claimed Israel; Britain and Canada made deals for icy makers’ initial intentions. that it offered a potentially inexhaustible research reactors with India. In his December 1953 speech to the source of energy. He described an atom- Today, it is widely acknowledged that United Nations, President Dwight D. ic future in which humanity could “trans- in the search for influence and advantage, Eisenhower announced what became form a desert continent, thaw the fro- Atoms for Peace and similar programs known as the Atoms for Peace program. zen poles, and make the whole Earth one created problems for the countries that The initiative spurred the United States, smiling Garden of Eden.” The dream en- supplied nuclear know-how and tech- its superpower rival, and its Western al- dured the building of the atom bomb and nology as well as those who were being lies to promote nuclear science and tech- the destruction of Hiroshima and Naga- encouraged to pursue it, fueled region- nology at home and abroad. In his speech, saki. Three days after the destruction of al rivalries, and became the bane of the Eisenhower warned of the dangers of nu- Nagasaki, the New York Times editorial- international community. Some of the clear weapons and the arms race, calling ized that atomic technology “can bring countries that participated in Atoms for nuclear technology the “greatest of de- to this Earth not death but life, not tyr- Peace went on to set up nuclear weap- structive forces.” But, he argued, it “can anny and cruelty, but a divine freedom,” ons programs using the knowledge and be developed into a great boon for the and could bring “dazzling gifts” to the resources acquired under these pro- benefit of all mankind.” America, he said, “millions of China and India, bound for grams. The nuclear fuel for many of the 42 Bulletin of the Atomic ScientiStS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 research reactors remains unsecured, a exhibited at Geneva, used low-enriched China’s 1964 nuclear test fueled su- possible target for theft. The foreign po- uranium (LEU) fuel, enriched to just perpower fears of the further spread of litical, economic, and technical support below 20 percent, which was and still is nuclear weapons to regions where they for nuclear science and nuclear energy the enrichment level considered of least might want to intervene and led the Unit- programs helped create powerful nuclear proliferation concern. By 1958, however, ed States and the Soviet Union to pro- complexes that have distorted the devel- the United States began to export HEU pose the 1968 Nuclear Non- Proliferation opment of both science and energy poli- for use in research and other reactors. Treaty (NPT). India’s 1974 nuclear test, cy in developing countries. Rather than a blessing, the nuclear age became in many ways a costly burden. atoms for Peace and similar programs created problems for the countries that supplied nuclear Atoms for Peace found its first know-how and technology as well as those and most public venue at the August who were being encouraged to pursue it, fueled 1955 U.N.-sponsored International Con- ference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic regional rivalries, and became the bane of the Energy held in Geneva. The U.S. delega- international community. tion, by far the largest, included almost 200 scientists and was accompanied by a swimming-pool type nuclear research reactor that was installed and ran at the conference site. Tens of thousands of people visited the reactor. Some were even allowed to operate it. As historian This helped the United States to avoid which used plutonium from a reactor of science John Krige has noted “[T]he the problems associated with having dif- supplied by Canada for peaceful purpos- presentation of the U.S. reactor in Gene- ferent sets of reactor designs and fuels es, spurred further concern about nu- va was a masterpiece of marketing. It was for use at home and abroad, and took ad- clear proliferation in developing coun- intended to demystify nuclear power and vantage of its rapidly growing stockpile tries. The United States launched a to show that anyone and any nation could of HEU that began to accumulate after series of initiatives in response. Among exploit it safely and to social advantage.” 1956, following a massive four-year ex- these was the Nuclear Suppliers Group Between 1956 and 1962, the United pansion of its fissile material complex. (NSG), which established agreed rules States awarded Atoms for Peace program From that point forward, weapon-grade for the international sale of nuclear tech- grants to 26 countries for the purchase of HEU became the default fuel for research nology for peaceful purposes. The Unit- research reactors. The recipients of these reactors worldwide, despite the fact that ed States also initiated the Reduced En- grants included Argentina, Brazil, South the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshi- richment for Research and Test Reactor Korea, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, Sweden, ma had been made from 60 kilograms of (RERTR) Program in 1978, aimed at con- and Taiwan, all of whom went on to de- HEU with an average enrichment of only verting research reactors using HEU to velop nuclear weapons programs. Most 80 percent and that the simple gun-type LEU fuel and targets. In an irony of histo- of these programs were eventually aban- design of the weapon was considered so ry, the United States and other suppliers doned, but some succeeded. The exam- reliable that it was used without testing. are now offering recipients financial as- ple of research reactors is important be- The drive to use HEU even led some op- sistance to return the HEU fuel that was cause it shows the imbalance between erational research reactors to be convert- once given as a gift. the short time it takes to establish nucle- ed from LEU to HEU. In total, supplier As of 2008, after three decades of U.S. ar technology, the longevity of such tech- states (all of whom had nuclear weapons) and international efforts to eliminate the nology, and the tedious and costly effort provided nearly 50 countries with HEU use of HEU in the civilian nuclear fuel to replace it once it is recognized as hav- to fuel hundreds of civilian research re- cycle, only 14 countries have been cleaned ing been a mistake. actors that were built up until the mid- out of the material (see “The Global Dis- From the beginning, most domestic 1970s. The United States alone export- tribution of Civilian HEU,” p. 44). If U.S. and Russian research reactors were ed almost 26,000 kilograms of HEU to not for recent concerns about nuclear fueled with weapon-grade highly en- fuel research and other prototype reac- terrorism, progress would be even less riched uranium (HEU), enriched to 90 tors. Today, nearly 100 metric tons of significant.
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