Nucleus: The History of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited by Robert Bothwell

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 349 house evidence a singular ability to relate this particular technology to political and economic culture. In their so doing, the culture rather than the technology comes up short. John G. Clark Dr. Ci.ark, professor of history at the University of Kansas, is the author of Energy and the Federal Government: Fossil Fuel Policies, 1900—1946 (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 1987). Nucleus: The History of Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. By Robert Bothwell. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1988. Pp. xx + 524; illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. $34.95. During and immediately after the Second World War, Canada, in loose partnership with the United States and Great Britain, was a pioneer in the held of nuclear energy. Canada, however, elected not to pursue the weapons option, protected as it was under America’s nuclear umbrella. Instead, Canada’s nuclear policy sought to keep abreast scientifically of the new energy source with a long-term sight on power production. Nucleus tells that storv. and Robert Bothwell is well equipped to write it, having authored an earlier book on Eldorado, Canada’s national uranium company. He has accomplished his task with grace and lucidity. Canada’s early emphasis on nuclear science centered on the na­ tional Chalk River laboratory, a basic research place dedicated to keeping the nation at the cutting edge of nuclear advancement. There a generation of scientists developed the NRX experimental reactor. Subsequently, the government created a new Crown corporation, Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), designed to operate as both a basic science (Chalk River came under its control) and engineering establishment that would make nuclear power a reality for the growing economic and energy needs of the nation. Based on the NRX, AECI. designed the heavy-water, natural uranium power reactor, the so-called CANDU machine. CANDU proudly and uniquely became the Canadian reactor (Canadians also claimed the acronym symbolized the can-do attitude of AECL’s scientists and engineers) as other nations experimented with different types of reactors. The CANDU machine served Canada well. At locations where it was constructed, it proved to be a top on-line workhorse. While Bothwell describes Canada’s nuclear science and engineering activities, Nucleus is mostly a corporate history, set in the context of federal-provincial relations. Bothwell objectively depicts AECL as a national nuclear research and development organization that, in spite of the purity of its intentions, was still a part of the larger government 350 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE bureaucracy. Consequently, politics often caused the corporation to accept tasks beyond its own priorities. Bothwell candidly discusses, for instance, AECL’s poor decision to agree to place a heavy-water plant on Cape Breton Island owing to the “regional” politics of the federal administration. Bothwell also points out that, as a national entity, AECL’s nuclear power activities rarely touched geographical areas of Canada outside the important St. Lawrence River—Windsor corridor where industrial growth demanded electricity. So to appeal to a broad constituency, AECL leaders argued that as a high-technology and skilled industry the company was a Canadian asset that contributed to the nation’s prestige and nationalism. Partially because of its image-seeking role, AECL became a supplier of reactors to the nonnuclear nations of the world. In taking this course, the Crown corporation had to compete with the other nuclear nations as well as with international private enterprise. Bothwell is fair-minded in relating this aspect of AECL history. Noteworthy is his analysis of negotiations concerning safeguards for construction of a research reactor for India. That nation’s duplicity in this episode enabled it to explode a nuclear device in 1974 and gave a black eye to Canada. Bothwell often and quite rightly captures the personalities that played leading roles in AECL. His emphasis on this aspect adds a human quality to his story. It reminds us that people (in this case men; there are no women in Bothwell’s chronicle) are the key elements in any corporate history. AECL was no exception. I would have liked to have seen more discussion of such topics as reactor safety, waste disposal, and decommissioning activities. These are quibbles, however, about...