Bertrand goldschmidt and atomic techno-scientific development in postwar France

• Autores: Mattew Adamson
• Localización: The Circulation of Science and Technology: Proceedings of the 4th International Conference of the European Society for the History of Science. Barcelona, 18-20 November 2010 / coord. por Antoni M. Roca Rosell, 2012, ISBN 978-84-9965-108-8, págs. 778-783
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • This paper considers the role of biography in the writing of the history of the physical sciences in the postwar, and in particular the history of techno-scientific institutions. It focuses on radiochemist Bertrand Goldschmidt, who played an important role in determining the nature of the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique’s development despite the fact that he was not a policy maker. Rather, as a radiochemist who chanced to specialize in the chemistry of plutonium, he discovered several scientific and non-scientific means to encourage its production in France, and thus influence the general military orientation of the French nuclear program.

    Goldschmidt was a prolific memoirist and participant-historian, and a look at his writings reveals a noticeably supple view of the postwar nuclear world, despite the narrowness of his technical specialty and the nationalist orientation of the CEA. A similarly broad view is exhibited in the writings and interviews of Goldschmidt’s fellow CEA chemist, Jules Guéron. However, for several reasons, Guéron’s interests did not influence the CEA’s development as did Goldschmidt’s, and in fact Guéron left the CEA to become Euratom’s first director of general research. This paper suggests that biographical studies incorporating oral histories alongside institutional archives can present a means for framing the development of postwar techno-scientific institutions, and are interesting stories in and of themselves.