Resumen de Rastreo de la nuclearización: circulación de radioisótopos en México, 1949-1970
Gisela Mateos Gisela Mateos, Edna Suárez Díaz
Radioisotopes circulation in México, 1949-1970This essay introduces the early history of radioisotopes distribution in Mexico. Using radioisotopes as tracers of historical processes, we follow the Cold War geopolitical context where applications, research and production of radioisotopes took place within the nascent Mexican nuclearity. The US program of distribution of radioisotopes to foreign countries (1947) has been depicted as a crucial instrument in its foreign policy. Radioisotopes symbolized and embodied the peaceful applications of atomic energy, and thus they were a central ingredient in the Atoms for Peace initiative announced by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1953. We trace the journeys of these materials, the people, disciplines, practices, and instruments (such as research reactors) involved in the traffic across the border and within the Mexican territory. These journeys require a multilevel narrative that aims to depict the intersection of multiple actors in different countries, as well as the overlapping agendas of the Cold War and development programs.
