ABSTRACT
The Second World War was followed by the development of the atom economy. There is no research on radioisotopes in economic and business history. This nuclear commodity stemmed from a related diversification process whose origin lay first in nuclear technology and then in reactors. This paper introduces the first stage of a technological innovation and the emergence phase of the agrarian and agro-industrial side of the businesses arising from the development of nuclear technology. The whole process highlights the early diffusion stage of product and process innovations (radioisotopes or radionuclides) and technology transfer.
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Notes
1 Definition: ‘A radioactive isotope (as distinguished from stabile isotope) of an element. Atomic nuclei area of two types, unstable and stable. Those in the former category are said to be radioactive and eventually are transformed, by radioactive decay into the later. One of the three types of particles or radiation are emitted during each stage of the decay. (…) The production, separation, purification and shipment of radioisotopes are usually considered primary production’. McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology 15, New York: McGraw-Hill, p. 168. Also called nuclides or radionuclides.
3 Prior research into the EPA (Boel, Citation1998, Citation2003) has already addressed the significant role that agriculture played in the EPA's financing areas. One of the EPA's activities involved improving its agricultural advisory services in Europe.
7 AEP (Citation1958b, pp. 80–82); Berthelot (Citation1958, p. 52). ‘The production of radioisotopes and instruments for this purpose has become one of the large industries in this country, and it will increase notably in the future.’ Later: ‘At least one company now has a design for a linear accelerator whose principal use is the continuous sterilization in cased food’ (Nierenberg, Citation1958, pp. 1033–1034).
11 Matteini (Citation1959, p. 19ff). ‘ … the impossibility of obtaining radioisotopes with short half-lives of a few days only (…) and the dollar cost’ were the main ‘disadvantages of relying on American supplies’. ‘The British, who also needed to reduce dollar expenditure, were the most anxious to develop their own production’ Gowing (Citation1974, p. 317).
13 National Industrial Conference Board, (1959, p. 13).
16 Matteini (Citation1959, p. 23). See ‘Woher bekommt Europa das angereicherte Uran?’ (1968, April). Atomwirtschaft, pp. 185–186.
21 Junta de Energía Nuclear-Ministerio de Industria (Citation1966, pp. 155ff).
23 Organisation Européenne de Coopération Économique de l’Agence Européenne pour l’Énergie Nucléaire (Citation1960, p. 137).
25 National Industry Conference Board (Citation1959, p. 135).
26 European Nuclear Energy Agency (ENEA) (Citation1960, pp. 161, 168, 175,181, 185, 192, 202, 205, 212, 220, 226, 232, 240, 248, 255).
33 Definition: Curie. Symbol Ci. A unit of activity of a radioactive nuclide, equal to 3.7 × 1010 desintegrations per second; in practice the millicurie (mCi) is used. The curie is loosely used a as unit of quantity of any radioactive substance in which there is a degree of activity. The curie has been displaced by the becquerel, an SI unit: 1 Ci = 3.7 × 1010 Bq. Named after Pierre Curie. Oxford Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors, Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1991, p. 86.
34 US Atomic Energy Commission/ Division of Technical Information (Citation1965, pp. 37–38).
36 Definition: Chemical compounds of a radioisotope (IAEA, Citation1959, p. XI).
37 U.S. Atomic Energy Commission/ Division of Industrial Participation (Citation1965, pp. 65–67).
38 National Industry Conference Board (Citation1959, p. 135). In addition to the ORNL, radioisotopes were produced at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory, the National Reactor Testing Station, the Savannah River Plant and Hanford.
39 National Industry Conference Board (Citation1959, p. 136). In Europe, Missão Britânica de Isótopos a Portugal (Citation1953, pp. 4–8); On the visit of the Radiochemical Centre Amersham, Schrader H.L. (1955, April) Europas Atomapotheke. Hamburger Abendsblatt, pp. 2–3.
43 (The Sphere Industrial Correspondent (1959, November). Radioisotopes. A paying nationalised industry. The Sphere, 14. p. 285).
44 (Britain leads in nuclear development. Export Trade in radio-isotopes (1955, August). The Yorkshire Post and Leeds Mercury, 8, p. 5).
48 Ehrenberg, Grandhall, and Gustafsson (Citation1956, pp. 38–44); Sparrow and Christensen (Citation1954, pp. 16–17); Dutch-Norvergian Joint Establishment for Nuclear Energy Research: Report for 1955–56, Nature 180, 1957: 794–795. doi:10.1038/180794a0
49 Definition: Curie. Symbol Ci. A unit of activity of a radioactive nuclide, equal to 3.7 × 1010 desintegrations per second; in practice the millicurie (mCi) is used. The curie is loosely used a as unit of quantity of any radioactive substance in which there is a degree of activity. The curie has been displaced by the becquerel, an SI unit: 1 Ci = 3.7 × 1010 Bq. Named after Pierre Curie. Oxford Dictionary for Scientific Writers and Editors, Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1991, p. 86.
52 European Productivity and Technical Assistance (Citation1958, p. 48ff).
54 West Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Greece, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Luxemburg, Norway, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Switzerland and Turkey. Spain was a full member of the OEEC in matters related to agriculture, but an associate member in everything else in 1957. Both Yugoslavia and Spain had an observer in the EPA.
57 Average employment share of Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, West Germany, Greece, Ireland,Italy Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland. Crafts and Toniolo (Citation2010, p. 316).
61 The countries were Belgium, Denmark, West Germany, Greece, Iceland, the Netherlands, Portugal and Switzerland.
78 National Industry Conference Board (Citation1959, p. 135/5).
79 National Industry Conference Board (Citation1959, pp. 65–67).
87 Der Auβenhandel der Bundesrepublik Deutschland mit kerntechnischen Erzeugnissen, (1967, Oktober). Atomwirtschaft, p. 483.
88 Deutsche Ein-und Ausfuhr von Radionukliden 1968. (1969, Dezember). Atomwirtschaft p. 611.
89 Fortschritte der Atomindustrie, (1967, Oktober). Atomwirtschaft, pp. 493ff.
90 Nuclex 69. (1969. Dezember). Atomwirtschaft, pp. 609–611.
95 Ljunggren (Citation1965, p. 439). ‘Tracing meant that a certain object, phase, substance or element … is labelled with a specific agent … and enable selective and ready detection to be made during or after the investigated process’ Ljunggren (Citation1965, p. 439 and 444).
97 Cameron (Citation1965, p. 303/307/318). ‘A radioisotope gauge consists basically of a sealed radioisotope source of radiation, a detector, and an electronic (…). The degree of absortion or scattering of the radiaton (…) is used to measure properties such as thickness, density (…) and level’.
99 Food Irradiation. Quaterly International Newsletter. Vol 1, N° 1, July-September 1960, p. 1ff. Goldblith (Citation1966, p. 8ff).
100 ((The Sphere Industrial Correspondent (1959, November). Radioisotopes. A paying nationalised industry. The Sphere, 14. p. 285); (Lebensmittel liegen unter Strahlenbeschuβ (1962, Februar) Passauer Neue Presse, p. 48, 27.02.)
Additional information
Funding
This work was supported by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation: [Grants Number HAR2014-53825-R and HAR2017-86086-R.].
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