Nuclear reach: uranium prospection and the global ambitions of the French nuclear programme, 1945–65

Abstract

ABSTRACT By the 1960s, French uranium geologists were prospecting on every continent. This paper considers the link between this form of ‘nuclear reach’ and the weapons tests, reactor sales, and scientific exchanges that characterised the French programme. The shifting status of uranium during the early nuclear age and the prospection of uranium by French geologists reveals much about the evolving ambitions of the French nuclear leadership. Geophysics and ore concentration, alongside nucleonics and reactor design, were lynchpin techniques of this era, and the diplomatic and commercial stakes involved were central to the calculations of the French nuclear leadership.