Three tons of uranium from the International Atomic Energy Agency: Diplomacy over nuclear fuel for the Japan Research Reactor-3 at the Board of Governors’ meetings, 1958–1959 (2021)
Kenji Ito (Author)
History and Technology
Volume: 37
Issue: 1
Pages: 67-89
Edition Details: Special Issue: Nuclear Diplomacies
Language: English
This paper combines renewed attention to science diplomacy with the rising interest in material and ontological aspects of science studies. It examines nuclear diplomacy by reviewing negotiations over three tons of natural uranium that the Japanese government requested from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1958. The uranium was half the amount required for the Japan Research Reactor-3, which reached criticality in 1962 and became Japan’s first domestically developed nuclear reactor. Japan’s request provided an opportunity to reaffirm the IAEA’s raison d’être and set in motion the process of establishing a safeguarding system against the military use of atomic energy. The IAEA Board of Governors deliberated on the issue from October 1958 to April 1959. Although Japan’s request was generally welcomed, it sparked confrontations between countries that accepted IAEA safeguards and those against them. By analysing the IAEA Board’s official records, this paper shows how the negotiations transformed the uranium into a ‘diplomatic object’.
...MoreArticle Kenji Ito; Maria Rentetzi (2021) The co-production of nuclear science and diplomacy: Towards a transnational understanding of nuclear things. History and Technology (pp. 4-20).
Similar Citations
Article
Gisela Mateos;
Edna Suárez-Díaz;
(2021)
Atomic Ambassadors: The IAEA’s First Preliminary Assistance Mission (1958)
Article
Kenji Ito;
Maria Rentetzi;
(2021)
The co-production of nuclear science and diplomacy: Towards a transnational understanding of nuclear things
Article
Alexandros-Andreas Kyrtsis;
Maria Rentetzi;
(2021)
From lobbyists to backstage diplomats: How insurers in the field of third party liability shaped nuclear diplomacy
Article
Matthew Adamson;
(2023)
Showcasing the international atom: the IAEA Bulletin as a visual science diplomacy instrument, 1958–1962
Book
Elisabeth Roehrlich;
(2022)
Inspectors for Peace: A History of the International Atomic Energy Agency
Book
Johnson, Robert R.;
(2012)
Romancing the Atom: Nuclear Infatuation from the Radium Girls to Fukushima
Book
Krysko, Michael A;
(2011)
American Radio in China: International Encounters with Technology and Communications, 1919--41
Book
Krige, John;
Callahan, Angelina Long;
Maharaj, Ashok;
(2013)
NASA in the World: Fifty Years of International Collaboration in Space
Article
Mario Daniels;
(2024)
The dangers of sharing knowledge with friends: the FSX Controversy and the use of US export controls against Japan in the 1980s and 1990s
Article
Fintan Hoey;
(2021)
The ‘conceit of controllability’: nuclear diplomacy, Japan’s plutonium reprocessing ambitions and US proliferation fears, 1974-1978
Article
Avenell, Simon;
(2012)
From Fearsome Pollution to Fukushima: Environmental Activism and the Nuclear Blind Spot in Contemporary Japan
Article
Shin-etsu Sugawara;
(2023)
The multistability of predictive technology in nuclear disasters
Article
Langston, Nancy;
(2012)
Japan Forum: Introduction
Chapter
Yuko Fujigaki;
(2015)
The Processes Through Which Nuclear Power Plants Are Embedded in Political, Economic, and Social Contexts in Japan
Article
Pritchard, Sara B.;
(2012)
An Envirotechnical Disaster: Nature, Technology, and Politics at Fukushima
Article
M. X. Mitchell;
(2021)
The Cosmology of Evidence: Suffering, Science, and Biological Witness After Three Mile Island
Book
Yuko Fujigaki;
(2015)
Lessons From Fukushima: Japanese Case Studies on Science, Technology and Society
Article
Hamblin, Jacob Darwin;
(2012)
Fukushima and the Motifs of Nuclear History
Chapter
Daniel P. Aldrich;
(2013)
Postcrisis Japanese Nuclear Policy
Article
Uekoetter, Frank;
(2012)
Fukushima, Europe, and the Authoritarian Nature of Nuclear Technology
Be the first to comment!