Hallowed lords of the sea: Scientific authority and radioactive waste in the United States, Britain, and France

Osiris

Volumn 21, Issue , 2006, Pages 209-228

  Hamblin, Jacob Darwin ^a  

^a CLEMSON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 33748531289     PISSN: 03697827     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1086/507142     Document Type: Article

References (100)

1. John D. Isaacs to Pacific Coast Committee, Dec. 21, 1959, Folder ″ES: Com on Ocean: Subc on Disposal of Low-Level Rad Waste into Pacific Coastal Waters: Report: Review, 1959," National Academies Archives, Washington, D.C. (hereafter cited as NAS Archives).
2. Disposal of Low-Level Radioactive Waste into Pacific Coastal Waters (Washington, D.C., 1962).
3. For overviews of the IAEA, see David Fisher, History of the International Atomic Energy Agency: The First Forty Years (Vienna, 1997);
4. and Lawrence Scheinman, The International Atomic Energy Agency and World Nuclear Order (Baltimore, 1987).
5. Ronald Doel and Allan Needell have written extensively about these connections, exploring the ways in which scientists were incorporated into diplomacy and national security. Ronald E. Doel, "Scientists as Policymakers, Advisors, and Intelligence Agents: Linking Contemporary Diplomatic History with the History of Contemporary Science," in The Historiography of Contemporary Science and Technology, ed. Thomas Söderqvist (Amsterdam, 1993), 215-44;
6. Allan A. Needell, Science, Cold War and the American State:
7. Lloyd V. Berkner and the Balance of Professional Ideals (Amsterdam, 2000).
8. See, e.g., the growing literature on the International Geophysical Year (1957-1958), in which historians increasingly are pointing out the diplomatic, national, and strategic motivations behind cooperative activities. Aant Elzinga, "Antarctica: The Construction of a Continent by and for Science," in Denationalizing Science: The Contexts of International Scientific Practice, ed. Elisabeth Crawford, Terry Shinn, and Sverker Sörlin (Dordrecht, 1992), 73-106;
9. Ronald E. Doel, "Constituting the Post-war Earth Sciences: The Military's Influence on the Environmental Sciences in the USA after 1945," Social Studies of Science 33 (2003): 635-66;
10. Jacob Darwin Hamblin, "Mastery of Landscapes and Seascapes: Science at the Strategic Poles during the International Geophysical Year," in Extremes: Oceanography's Adventures at the Poles, ed. Helen M. Rozwadowski (Cambridge, forthcoming).
11. Kristine Harper has pointed this out in her discussion of the competing national and international goals in meteorology. Kristine C. Harper, "Research from the Boundary Layer: Civilian Leadership, Military Funding, and the Development of Numerical Weather Prediction (1946-55)," Soc. Stud. Sci. 33 (2003): 667-96.
12. For representative publications taking different sides on this issues, see Paul Forman, "Behind Quantum Electronics: National Security as Basis for Physical Research in the United States, 1940-1960," Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 18 (1987): 149-229;
13. Daniel J. Kevles, "Cold War and Hot Physics: Science, Security, and the American State, 1945-1956," Hist. Stud. Phys. Biol. Sci. 20 (1990): 239-64.
14. Oceanographers' changing patronage strategies are discussed in Jacob Darwin Hamblin, Oceanographers and the Cold War: Disciples of Marine Science (Seattle, 2005).
15. The military (naval) patronage for oceanography in the United States is discussed at length in Gary E. Weir, An Ocean in Common: American Naval Officers, Scientists, and the Ocean Environment (College Station, Texas, 2001).
16. Efforts to court naval patronage at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography are discussed in Ronald Rainger, "Patronage and Science: Roger Revelle, the U.S. Navy, and Oceanography at the Scripps Institution," Earth Sciences History 19 (2000): 58-89.
17. Naomi Oreskes has pointed out that some ostensibly nonmilitary projects have had their military origins erased or forgotten, as in the case of the Alvin submersible craft; rather than painting their projects blue, that is, making basic research seem like applied military research to attract funding, oceanographers often painted their projects white, obscuring the military origins of their research. See Naomi Oreskes, "A Context for Motivation: U.S. Navy Oceanographic Research and the Discovery of Sea-Floor Hydrothermal Vents," Soc. Stud. Sci. 33 (2003): 697-742.
18. Much of the discussion about naval patronage of oceanography has centered on the use of scientists as experts. Chandra Mukerji, for example, went so far as to call oceanographers a reserve labor force, ready to provide the military with much-needed expertise at any time. Mukerji,A Fragile Power: Scientists and the State (Princeton, 1990).
19. Stephen Bocking recently has emphasized the importance to environmentalists of the uncertainty of environmental effects, because it allows them to call into question the scientific authority of those who have already made policies. See Bocking, Nature's Experts: Science, Politics, and the Environment (New Brunswick, N.J., 2004).
20. See The Effects of Atomic Radiation on Oceanography and Fisheries (Washington, D.C., 1957).
21. An overview of the IGY can be found in Walter Sullivan, Assault on the Unknown: The International Geophysical Year (New York, 1961).
22. "Current is Found Far Down in Sea," New York Times, June 29, 1958, 45.
23. "Sea Canyons Held Poor Atom Ash Cans," New York Times, Aug. 3,1958, 8.
24. Oceanographers Split," New York Times, Nov. 22, 1958, 11. The Tass story is reported here.
25. See also Walter Sullivan, "Sea Depths Yield Secrets in IGY," New York Times, Jan. 5, 1959, 4.
26. For a contemporary discussion of UNCLOS, see Charles Swan and James Ueberhorst, "The Conference on the Law of the Sea: A Report," Michigan Law Review 56 (1958): 1132-41.
27. Harrison Brown to Detlev Bronk, Jan. 8, 1958;
28. Detlev Bronk to Harrison Brown, Feb. 3, 1958, Folder "ADM: ORG: NAS: Coms on BEAR: Oceanography and Fisheries: Cooperation with NRC Com on Oceanography," NAS Archives.
29. Ronald Rainger, "'A Wonderful Oceanographic Tool': The Atomic Bomb, Radioactivity, and the Development of American Oceanography," in The Machine in Neptune's Garden: Historical Perspectives on Technology and the Marine Environment, ed. Helen M. Rozwadowski and David K. van Keuren (Sagamore Beach, Mass., 2004), 93-131, 115.
30. Arnold Joseph to Richard C. Vetter, memo, Jan. 10, 1958, Folder "ES: Corn on Ocean: Subcommittee on Radioactive Waste Disposal into Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Waters, General, 1958" NAS Archives.
31. Ibid.
32. Thomas N. Downing to John A. McCone, June 25, 1959, Folder "ES: Com on Ocean: Subc On Rad Waste Disposal into Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Waters, 1959," NAS Archives.
33. Harrison Brown to Dayton Carritt, July 25, 1959;
34. Detlev Bronk to S. Douglas Cornell, July 31, 1959, Folder "ES: Com on Ocean: Subc On Rad Waste Disposal into Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Waters, 1959," NAS Archives.
35. Arnold B. Joseph to Richard C. Vetter, June 19, 1956, Folder "ES: Com on Ocean: Subc on Rad Waste Disposal into Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Waters, General, 1958," NAS Archives.
36. Isaacs to Pacific Coast Committee, Dec. 21, 1959 letter (cit. n. 1).
37. John D. Isaacs to Ralph S. O'Leary, March 15, 1961, Folder "ES: Com on Ocean: Subc on Disposal of Low-Level Rad Waste into Pacific Coastal Waters: Rept: Review: 1961," NAS Archives.
38. Arnold B. Joseph to John D. Isaacs, Sept. 22,1960, Folder "ES: Com on Ocean: Subc on Disposal of Low-Level Rad Waste into Pacific Coastal Waters: Rept: Review: General: 1960," NAS Archives.
39. Arnold B. Joseph to Roger Revelle, July 20,1961, Folder "ES: Com on Ocean: Subc on Disposal of Low-Level Rad Waste into Pacific Coastal Waters: Rept: Review: 1961," NAS Archives.
40. Arnold B. Joseph, "Comments on Report of Pacific Coast Subcommittee on Sea Disposal of Low Level Radioactive Waste," revised April 1961, Folder "ES: Com on Ocean: Subc on Disposal of Low-Level Rad Waste into Pacific Coastal Waters: Rept: Review: 1961," NAS Archives.
41. Ibid.
42. Ibid.
43. The "authorization" process in Britain is discussed, along with other pertinent waste disposal issues, in Frans Berkhout, Radioactive Waste: Politics and Technology (London, 1991).
44. Disposal of Low-Level Radioactive Waste into Pacific Coastal Waters (cit. n. 2).
45. H. J. Dunster to Roger Revelle, July 17, 1961, AB 54/16, United Kingdom National Archives, Kew, U.K. (hereafter cited as British National Archives).
46. For more detailed discussion of the Soviet Union's opposition to nuclear waste disposal at sea, see Jacob Darwin Hamblin, "Environmental Diplomacy in the Cold War: The Disposal of Radioactive Waste at Sea during the 1960s," International History Review 24 (2002): 348-75.
47. A. H. K. Slater, Note for Record, June 5, 1959, AB 16/3000, British National Archives.
48. H. J. Dunster to J. M. Hartog, "International Agency Conference on Disposal of Nuclear Waste," April 20, 1959, AB 16/3000, British National Archives.
49. W. G. Marley to J. F. Jackson, "International Atomic Energy Conference on Disposal of Radioactive Wastes," April 27, 1959, AB 16/3000, British National Archives.
50. Dunster to Hartog, "International Agency Conference on Disposal of Nuclear Waste" (cit. n. 36).
51. Sterling Cole to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Office, March 24, 1959, AB 16/3000, British National Archives.
52. P. W. Ridley to F. J. Ward, Aug. 28,1959, AB 16/3000, British National Archives.
53. "Note by Sir John Cockcroft," Dec. 7, 1959, AB 16/3001, British National Archives.
54. H. J. Dunster to John Cockcroft, Dec. 8, 1959, AB 16/3001, British National Archives.
55. "Note by Sir John Cockcroft" (cit. n. 41).
56. Stephen Coulter, "All at Sea on Atomic Waste," Sunday Times, Nov. 22, 1959, press clipping, AB 16/3001, British National Archives.
57. P. W. Ridley to H. J. Dunster, Dec. 9, 1959, AB 16/3001, British National Archives.
58. A. H. K. Slater to A. S. McLean, Jan. 15, 1960, AB 16/3001, British National Archives.
59. H. J. Dunster to A. H. K. Slater, Dec. 4, 1959, AB 16/3001, British National Archives.
60. On the importance of nuclear power in French politics and culture, see Gabrielle Hecht, The Radiance of France: Nuclear Power and National Identity after World War II (Cambridge, Mass., 1988).
61. For a French insider's view on the political and diplomatic issues related to nuclear programs, see Bertrand Goldschmidt, Le Complexe atomique (Paris, 1980).
62. The origins of the CEA are discussed in Spencer R. Weart, Scientists in Power (Cambridge, Mass., 1979).
63. On the history of nuclear safety in France, see M. Cyrille Foasso, "Histoire de la Sûreté de I'Énergie Nucléaire Civile en France, 1945-2000" (Ph.D. diss., Univ. Lumière, Lyon II, 2003).
64. Most of the elements would have been Ce-144 and Pr-144 (about 350 curies), Sr-90 (about 40 curies), and Pu (about 14 curies). "Projet de Rejet en Mer en Méditerrané de Déchets Radioactifs," Mayl2, 1960, Folder "Effluents/Rejets en Méditerranée," Box F2/23-18 80-1217 (HQ, Archives, Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique, Fontenoy aux Roses, France (hereafter cited as CEA Archives).
65. Ibid.
66. Jean Furnestin to Secrétaire Général de la Marine Marchande, Oct 6, 1960, Folder "Effluents/Rejects en Méditerranée," Box F2/23-18 80-1217 (HC), CEA Archives.
67. V. Romanovsky to Haut Commissaire, CEA, Oct. 8, 1960, Folder "Effluents/Rejets en Méditerranée," Box F2/23-18 80-1217 (HC), CEA Archives.
68. Louis Fage to Le Délégué Général à la Recherche Scientilique et Technique, Oct. 13, 1960, Folder "Effluents/Rejets en Méditerranée," Box F2/23-18 80-1217 (HC), CEA Archives.
69. Ibid.
70. A brief biography of Cousteau is Axel Madsen, Cousteau: An Unauthorized Biography (New York, 1986).
71. The CEA's records include various newspaper clippings reprinting Cousteau's remarks. Quoted here is an unpaginated excerpt from Le Patriote, a newspaper in Nice, dated Oct. 11, 1960. Folder "Effluents/Rejets en Méditerranée," Box F2/23-18 80-1217 (HC), CEA Archives.
72. The letters of protest from towns on the coast are all collected in the same folder, near Jean Médecin to Francis Perrin, Oct. 12, 1960, Folder: Effluents/Protestations, Box F2/23-18 80-1217 (HC), CEA Archives.
73. The statements about Rainier and Cousteau in Le Monde are from clippings saved by the CEA dated Oct. 11, 1960. Folder "Effluents/Rejets en Méditerranée," Box F2/23-18 80-1217 (HC), CEA Archives.
74. "France to Delay Atomic Disposal," New York Times, Oct. 13, 1960, 20.
75. Extract from interview of Cousteau by Pierre Ichaac, Oct. 26, 1960, Fonds M. A. Gauvenet, Folder "Déchts dans la Mer," Box 156/256, CEA Archives.
76. "Éléments d'Appréciation de l'Importance de I'Action de M. J.-Y. Cousteau dans la Campagne d'Opposition au Projet de Rejet Expérimental en Méditerranée," Department of External Relations, CEA, Nov. 1960, Folder "Effluents/Rejets en Méditerranée," Box F2/23-18 80-1217 (HC), CEA Archives.
77. Francis Perrin to Louis Fage, Oct. 14, 1960, Folder "Effluents/Rejets en Méditerranée," Box F2/23-18 80-1217 (HC), CEA Archives.
78. "Déchets Radioactifs," no author, Nov. 15, 1960;
79. Henri Baïassas to Jean Furnestin, n.d., Folder "Effluents/Rejets en Méditerranée," Box F2/23-18 80-1217 (HC), CEA Archives.
80. "Déchets Radioactifs" (cit. n. 64).
81. Henri Baïssas, "Compte Rendu de Ma Mission à Monaco," Dec. 15, 1960, Folder "Effluents/Protestations," Box F2/23-18 80-1217 (HC), CEA Archives.
82. Henri Baïassas, note, Feb. 6, 1961, Folder "Effluents/Rejets en Méditerranée," Box F2/23-18 80-1217 (HC), CEA Archives.
83. H. J. Dunster to F. A. Vick, "Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea," July 27, 1960, AB 6/2087, British National Archives.
84. D. E. H. Peirson to John Cockcroft, Nov. 4,1960, AB 16/3002, British National Archives. Quotation taken from I. G. K. Williams to J. C. Walker, "Collaboration between the IAEA and the Government of Monaco," Nov. 7, 1960, AB 16/3585, British National Archives.
85. For more on the diplomatic aspects of radioactive waste in the 1960s, see Hamblin, "Environmental Diplomacy in the Cold War" (cit. n. 34).
86. The brief for the United States delegation is titled "Scientific Collaboration with the Government of Monaco on Research on Disposal of Radioactive Waste into the Sea," n.d., AB 16/3002, British National Archives.
87. "Record of Discussion of Anglo-US Collaboration on Waste Disposal Problems Prior to November Meeting of IAEA Committee," Oct. 14, 1960, AB 16/3002, British National Archives.
88. Public relations liaison was to be handled by Jean Renou (France) and Eric Underwood (the United Kingdom), while technical aspects would be handled by André Gauvenet (France) and Ian Willams (the United Kingdom). See Bertrand Goldschmidt to D. E. H. Peirson, Dec. 20, 1960, AB 16/3588, British National Archives.
89. Notes of Talks with CEA 14th-15th December: Public Relations Aspects of Waste Disposal," n.d., AB 16/3588, British National Archives.
90. See Hamblin, "Environmental Diplomacy in the Cold War" (cit. n. 34).
91. These agreements are part of the Convention on the Prevention of Marine Pollution by Dumping of Wastes and Other Matter, the initial version of which was signed in 1972. Details are available at http://www.londonconvention.org.
92. International Atomic Energy Agency, press release, "Finnish Scientist to Direct Major Research Program in Monaco," June 8, 1961, AB 16/3585, British National Archives.
93. Bocking, Nature's Experts (cit. n. 10).
94. Dorothy Nelkin, Technological Decisions and Democracy (London, 1978).
95. Lord Zuckerman, "Science Advisers and Scientific Advisers," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 124 (1980): 241-55.
96. On science advising, see ibid.;
97. Gregg Herken, Cardinal Choices: Presidential Science Advising from the Atomic Bomb to SDI (Stanford, 2000);
98. Sheila Jasanoff, The Fifth Branch: Science Advisers as Policymakers (Cambridge, Mass., 1990);
99. Zuoyue Wang, "Responding to Silent Spring: Scientists, Popular Science Communication, and Environmental Policy in the Kennedy Years," Science Communication 19 (1997): 141-63.
100. These efforts are discussed in greater detail in Hamblin, Oceanographers and the Cold War (cit. n. 8).