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The Origins of Euratom's Research on Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion: Cold War Politics and European Integration, 1958–1968

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2022

Barbara Curli*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Culture Politica e Società, Università di Torino, Lungo Dora Siena 100, I, 10153 Torino, Italy

Abstract

The article traces the origins and early developments of European fusion research in the framework of Euratom and of postwar nuclear international institutionalism, and as an episode of both the technoscientific Cold War and the interaction between big science and politics in the history of European integration. Based on original Italian, French and European Union archival sources, the article deals with four main passages of Euratom's fusion history: the Euratom treaty and Euratom's first five-year programme (1958–62); the early attempts to establish a Euratom ‒ CERN Joint Study Group for Fusion Research (1958‒9); the launching of Euratom's first fusion programme; and the contribution of Euratom's ‘fusion association contracts’ with the member states to the creation and training of a European transnational epistemic community of fusion scientists and technocrats. The Merger Treaty of 1965, the ‘crisis’ of Euratom and the prospect of British entry in the Community, as well as the ‘tokamak revolution’ of the late 1960s, would contribute to substantially redefine the European fusion programme.

Type
Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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11 One of the ‘Canadiens’ of the French nuclear establishment who during the Second World War left France for Canada, where he continued to carry out research for the Allied effort, Guéron joined the CEA after the war and was director of the research center of Saclay. He served as the first director for research and education of Euratom. On Guéron, Hommage à Jules Guéron (Paris: CEA, 1992).

12 Edoardo Amaldi came from the group known as the Rome school of physics – the so-called ‘ragazzi di via Panisperna’ – led by Enrico Fermi. He was the director of the department of physics at Rome University and president of Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare. One of the founders of CERN, where he served as secretary general from 1952 to 1955, he was the first chairman of Euratom's Scientific and Technical Committee. Carlo Rubbia, Edoardo Amaldi. Scientific Stateman (Geneva: CERN 91/09, 1991); Fernando Ferroni, ed., The Legacy of Edoardo Amaldi in Science and Society (Bologna: Società italiana di fisica, 2010); Lodovica Clavarino, Scienza e politica nell'era nucleare. La scelta pacifista di Edoardo Amaldi (Roma: Carocci, 2014).

13 Enrico Persico, like Amaldi, came from the Rome school of physics. A professor at the University of Turin, he also taught at Cambridge and in Canada. He was the Italian representative in the CERN Study Group on Fusion. Giovanni Battimelli, ‘Enrico Persico’, in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, 82 (2015), https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/enrico-persico_(Dizionario-Biografico)/ (last visited: 15 Feb. 2022).

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16 Joan Lisa Bromberg, Fusion: Science, Politics, and the Invention of a New Energy Source (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1982); Amasa S. Bishop, Project Sherwood: The U.S. Program in Controlled Fusion (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1958); Steven Goldberg, ‘Controlling Basic Science: The Case of Nuclear Fusion’, Georgetown Law Journal, 68 (1979–80); Stephen O. Dean, Search for the Ultimate Energy Source: A History of the U.S. Fusion Energy Program (New York: Springer, 2013).

17 USAEC, Division of Technical Information, AEC and Action Paper on Controlled Thermonuclear Research. Washington, DC: USAEC, June 1966, iii–28.

18 John Krige, The First Twenty Years of Nuclear Fusion Research, unpublished manuscript. On the role of thermonuclear technology advancement in shaping US global strategy, Jacob Darwin Hamblin, The Wretched Atom: America's Global Gamble with Peaceful Nuclear Technology (Oxford Scholarship online, 2021).

19 Bromberg, Science and politics, 2.

20 V.D. Shafranov, B.D. Bondarenko and G.A. Goncharov, ‘On the History of the Research into Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion’, Physics ‒ Uspekhi 44 (8), Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk, Russian Academy of Sciences (2001); Paul R. Josephson, Red Atom: Russia's Nuclear Power Program from Stalin to Today (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000), 167 ss.

21 USAEC, AEC and Action Paper, iii–32.

22 United Nations, Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy: Fifty Years of Magnetic Confinement Fusion Research, 1958–2008 (Geneva: IAEA, 2008).

23 In the vast literature on Atoms for Peace, the combination of the political and discursive aspects are particularly dealt with in Krige, John, ‘Atoms for Peace, Scientific Internationalism, and Scientific Intelligence’, Osiris, 2 (2006)Google Scholar.

24 David Fisher, History of the International Atomic Energy Agency: The First Forty Years (Vienna: IAEA, 1997).

25 The Foreign Office records of Khrushchev's visit are now made available online by the Wilson Center Cold War International History Project, see Sergey Radchenko, Love Us as We Are: Khrushchev's 1956 Charm Offensive in the UK, CWIHP Dossier No. 71, April 2016. https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/love-us-we-are-khrushchevs-1956-charm-offensive-the-uk (last visited 15 Feb. 2022). See also Campbell Craig and Sergey Radchenko, ‘MAD, not Marx: Khrushchev and the Nuclear Revolution’, Journal of Strategic Studies, 41, 1–2 (2018); Campbell Craig and Sergey Radchenko, The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008); David Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb: The Soviet Union and Atomic Energy 1939–1956 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994); David Holloway, ‘The Soviet Union and the Creation of the International Atomic Energy Agency’, Cold War History, 16, 2 (2016); Mark B. Smith, ‘Peaceful Coexistence at all Costs: Cold War Exchanges Between Britain and the Soviet Union’, Cold War History, 12, 3 (2012).

26 Igor V. Kurchatov, The possibility of producing thermonuclear reactions in a gazeous discharge. Lecture given on 26 Apr. 1956 at the British Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell, published in Nucleonics, June 1956.

27 ‘Visit to the United Kingdom of Bulganin and Khrushchev, 19–27 April 1956’, History and Public Policy Programme Digital Archive, FO 371/122836. Document obtained by James Vaughan. http://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/123798 (last visited 15 Feb. 2022).

28 Braams and Stott, Nuclear Fusion.

29 The collection was edited by Mikhail Leontovich under the title Plasma Physics and the Problems of Controlled Thermonuclear Reactions. On the importance of this publication for American fusion research see Physics Today 13, 7 (1960), 48.

30 Herman, Fusion, 49 ss; Kriege, The First Twenty Years.

31 Gary J. Weisel, ‘The Plasma Archipelago: Plasma Physics in the 1960s’, Physics in Perspective, 19 (2017), 191.

32 Bertrand Goldschmidt, L'aventure atomique. Ses aspects politiques et techniques (Paris: Fayard, 1962).

33 On declassification and for an account of the second Geneva Conference, see United Nations, Peaceful Uses; Fischer, History of the IAEA.

34 Eckert, ‘Plasmas and Solid-State Science’, 425.

35 On fusion research carried out by the CEA in those early years, see Michel Trocheris, ‘Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion Research Conducted by the French Commissariat à l'energie atomique’, in Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference, jointly sponsored by the UN and the IAEA and held in Geneva, 6–16 Sept. 1971, vol. 7.

36 On the Italian fusion project, Barbara Curli, ‘Italy, Euratom and Early Research on Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion, 1957–1962’; and Mauro Elli, ‘Italy in the European Fusion Programme during the 1980s: A Preliminary Overview’, in Elisabetta Bini and Igor Londero, eds., Nuclear Italy: An International History of Italian Nuclear Policies during the Cold War (Trieste: EUT, 2017). See also Bruno Brunelli, ‘The History and Future of the Italian Fusion Programme’, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, 29 (1987).

37 On the German fusion programme, Michael Eckert, ‘“Vom Matterhorn zum Wendelstein”. Internationale Anstösse für Fusionsforschung in der BRD’, in Michael Eckert and Maria Osietzki, Wissenschaft für Macht und Markt. Kernforschung und Mikroelektronik in der BRD (Munich: Beck, 1989); Susan Boenke, Entstehung und Entwicklung des Max-Planck-Instituts für Plasmaphysik 1955–1971 (Frankfurt: Campus Verlag, 1991).

38 Groupe de l'Euratom. Rapport du Groupe ad hoc, Programme et Budget de Recherche, 3 Jan. 1957, Archivi Storici del Dipartimento di Fisica (ASDF), Università di Roma ‘La Sapienza’, Archivio Edoardo Amaldi (EA), 175, 2, 1 (translations from French and Italian are the author's).

39 Note de la Délégation française sur les activités de recherche d'Euratom, 28 Nov. 1957, Archives Historiques du Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (AHCEA), Fontenay-aux-Roses, Archives du Haut-Commissaire à l'Energie Atomique (HC), F5.17.11.

40 Comité intérimaire pour le Marché commun et l'Euratom, Compte-Rendu de la Réunion du Groupe de la Recherche tenue le 3 Décembre à Paris; Comité intérimaire pour le Marché commun et l'Euratom, Rapport du Groupe de la Recherche nucléaire, 4 Dec. 1957, AHCEA, HC, F5.17.11.

41 Euratom, la Commission, Comité scientifique et technique, Projet de compte-rendu de la réunion du 7 juillet 1958, Bruxelles, 18 July 1958, AEA, ADF, 190, 1, 1.

42 On these cultural, discursive features of Euratom's early history, Barbara Curli, ‘Nuclear Europe: Technoscientific Modernity and European Integration in the Discourse on Euratom's Early History’, in Manuela Ceretta and Barbara Curli, eds., Discourses and Counter-discourses on Europe: From the Enlightenment to the European Union (London: Routledge, 2017).

43 Relazione preliminare sulla II Conferenza di Ginevra sugli usi pacifici dell'energia nucleare, Sept. 1958, ADF, EA, 160, 2.

44 On this issue see in general Fabian Lüscher, ‘The Nuclear Spirit of Geneva: Boundary-Crossing Relationships of Soviet Atomic Scientists after 1955’, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas, 66, 1 (2018).

45 Le problème de la fusion: coopération d'Euratom avec les Etats-Unis, l'Agence Internationale de l'Energie Atomique (AIEA), l’ Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) et programme de recherches sur la physique des plasmas dans le cadre du Groupe ‘Fusion thermonucléaire contrôlée’, Historical Archives of the European Union, Florence (HAEU), Archives of the Commission (AC), BAC-118/1986_2253.

46 Dominique Pestre, ‘Another Aspect of CERN's European Dimension: The “European Study Group on Fusion”, 1958–64’, in Armin Hermann, John Krige, Ulrike Mersits and Dominique Pestre, History of CERN, Vol. II (Amsterdam: North Holland, 1990). Here Pestre underlines the relationship between Sputnik and the fusion initiative. See also Luca Guzzetti, A Brief History of European Union Research Policy (Luxembourg: European Commission, DG XII, 1995); Krige, The First Twenty Years.

47 Letter from Bakker to De Rose, 17 Apr. 1958, HAEU, Jules Guéron (JG) 93. Tentative names included Thonemann and Pease (UK), Winter, Vendryes and Huber (France); Brunelli and Persico (Italy); Biermann and Schlüter (Germany), Siegbahn (Sweden), Braams (Netherland).

48 Guéron to Medi and De Groote, 20 Apr. 1958; Guéron to Bakker, 21 May 1958, HAUE, JG 93.

49 Pestre, ‘Another Aspect of CERN's European Dimension’, 419–20. One of the reasons put forward was also to try to avoid the departure to the United States of Arnulf Schlüter, who during a meeting in Geneva in March 1957 had expressed vehement criticism of the ‘Zeta’ experience. Letter from Bakker to De Rose, 17 Apr. 1958, HAEU, JG 93.

50 Euratom-CERN Joint study for Fusion Research. Minutes of Meeting held at CERN to discuss the possibility of setting up a joint study group to consider European fusion research programmes, 2 June 1958; ASDF, EA, Sezione Archivio del Dipartimento di Fisica (ADF), 190, 1, 1, and Note for the Commission by Guéron, 5 June 1958, HAEU, JG 93.

51 Bakker to Guéron, 24 June 1958, HAEU, JG 93.

52 Pestre, ‘Another Aspect of CERN's European Dimension’, 421.

53 Krige, ‘The First Twenty Years’, 30.

54 Bakker to Guéron, 3 July 1958, ASDF, EA, ADF 175, 2, 2. The CERN Study Group was chaired by Adams, and its members were the French P. Hubert and G. Vendryes from Fontenay-aux-Roses and P. Prévot, S.D. Winter and M. Trocheris from Saclay; the Italian B. Brunelli and E. Persico from Frascati; the German L. Biermann, G. von Gierke and A. Schlüter from the Max Planck Institut in Münich and Fuchs and Jordan from Achen; the British L.J. Bickerton from Harwell and Latham from the Imperial College in London; the Dutch C.M. Braams, H. Brinkman and ter Horst; K. Johnsen from Norway; the Danish O. Kofoed-Hansenthe, the Belgian Lafleur, the Swedish A. Dattner and K. Siegbahn; the Swiss H.E. Knoepfel. Observers from outside organisations were Guéron and Palumbo for Euratom; L. Kowarski and P.J. Frank for the OEEC; and Bishop of the USAEC.

55 European Fusion Research: Report of the CERN Study Group on Fusion Problems, 2nd draft, 24 Mar. 1959. ASDF, Archivio Enrico Persico (EP), 16/73. Enrico Persico was the Italian member (with Bruno Brunelli) of the Study Group.

56 Pestre, ‘Another Aspect of CERN's European Dimension’, 425–6.

57 On the reception of the British proposal see the correspondence between Adams and Persico in ASDF, EP, 16/73. Persico was invited to join as the Italian representative of the society.

58 Jean Jacquinot, Donato Palumbo (1921–2011), a fusion visionary, http://www.iter.org/newsline/201/977 (last visited 15 Feb. 2022). Umberto Finzi, Donato Palumbo, in Dizionario biografico degli italiani, online, 80 (2014), http://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/donato-palumbo_(Dizionario-Biografico)/ (last visited 15 Feb. 2022).

59 Donato Palumbo, ‘The Work of the European Commission in Promoting Fusion Research in Europe’, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, 29, 10B (1987).

60 Pestre, ‘Another Aspect of CERN's European Dimension’.

61 Fusion nucléaire: projet de la Commission de l'Euratom de développer un programme de recherche en matière de fusion contrôlée, HAEU, AC, BAC-118/1986_497, 1959–60.

62 Bromberg, Fusion.

63 Commission Euratom, Compte rendu sommaire de la réunion du 15 décembre 1959 à Val Duchesse. AHCEA, HC, F5.17.11.

64 This paragraph is based on the Minutes of Meetings of the Euratom-CEA Association contract: Association Euratom-CEA pour la fusion contrôlée – Comité de gestion, Procès-verbaux et documents annexes, 3 volumes, B 2504-2505-2506, Archives historiques du Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique (AHCEA), Fontenay-aux-Roses, Haut Commissaire (HC).

65 On this early French fusion community, Anatole Abragam, De la physique avant toute chose (Paris: Odile Jacob, 1987).

66 Michel Trocheris, ‘The History and Future of the French Fusion Programme’, Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion, 29 (1987).

67 See for example Letter from Guéron to Arthur Ruark, Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion Division of Research, Atomic Energy Commission, USA, 12 Sept. 1960, Notes sur le contrat d'association entre EURATOM et CEA, HAEU, JG, 93.

68 On the United Kingdom‒Euratom Agreement, Mauro Elli, Politica estera ed ingegneria nucleare. I rapporti del Regno Unito con l'Euratom (1957–1963) (Milano: Unicopli, 2007); Stuart A. Butler, ‘The Struggle for Power: Britain and Euratom 1955–63’, International History Review, 36, 2 (2014), where, however, fusion is not mentioned.

69 As a result of this reorganisation, the CdG was enlarged to four members from Euratom and four members from the CEA.

70 On the origin of Italian fusion research, and related bibliography, see more extensively Curli, Italy, Euratom, and Early Research on Controlled Nuclear Fusion. In general, on Italian nuclear research in the 1950s and 1960s, Barbara Curli, Il progetto nucleare italiano, 1952‒1964. Conversazioni con Felice Ippolito (Soveria Mannelli: Rubbettino, 2000); Bini and Londero, Nuclear Italy; Leopoldo Nuti, La sfida nucleare. La politica estera italiana e le armi atomiche 1945‒1991 (Bologna: il Mulino, 2007); Giovanni Paoloni, ed., Energia, ambiente, innovazione, dal Cnrn al Cnen (Roma-Bari: Laterza, 1992).

71 Commission Euratom, Note d'Information sur l'exécution du programme de recherches, 3 May 1960, in Archivi ENEA, Frascati (AENEA), Contratto di Ricerca (CR) Euratom-CNRN (Laboratorio Gas Ionizzati), then Contratto di ricerca Euratom-CNEN (Laboratorio Gas Ionizzati).

72 The Minutes of Meetings of the Italian Association contract are in AENEA, CR Euratom-CNRN, Comitato di gestione, Verbali, 1960–68.

73 David C. Cassidy, Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg (New York: W. H. Freeman, 1992). On his public role in the reconstruction of post-war nuclear research in West Germany, Cathryn Carson, Heisenberg in the Atomic Age: Science and the Public Sphere (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010); Cathryn Carson, ‘New Models for Science in Politics: Werner Heisenberg in West Germany’, Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 30, 1 (1999); Michael Eckert, ‘Primacy Doomed to Failure: Heisenberg's Role as Scientific Adviser for Nuclear Policy in the FRG’, Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences, 21, 1 (1990).

74 The role of the first Geneva Conference in catalysing the resumption of fusion research in West Germany will subsequently be acknowledged by Ludwig Biermann in his speech at the Second Geneva Conference; see Ludwig Biermann, ‘Recent Work on Controlled Thermonuclear Fusion in Germany/(Federal Republic)’, Proceedings of the Second United Nations International Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy, Vol. 31. Theoretical and Experimental Aspects of Controlled Nuclear Fusion (Geneva, 1958).

75 On Heisenberg's and Biermann's role in the establishment of Garching and in general in this early phase of German fusion research, see Eckert, ‘Vom “Matternhorn” zum “Weldenstein”’, and Boenke, Entstehung und Entwicklung.

76 Letter from Biermann to Guéron, 18 Mar. 1959, and Notes on Discussion of 5 Mar. 1959, HAEU, JG 93; Donato Palumbo, Prise de contact avec l'Institut Max Planck de Munich du 21 May 1959, HAEU, AC, BAC-118/1986_2545, Energie nucléaire en République fédérale d'Allemagne: contrat fusion ‘Munich’; contrat avec le Max Planck Gesellschaft pour la recherche concernant la fusion nucléaire. Vol. 6, 1959–60. In this document Palumbo reconstructs earlier discussions.

77 Donato Palumbo, Note pour M. Guéron. Contrat Munich – Conversations du 21 mai 1959, Bruxelles, 29 May 1959. HAEU, AC, BAC-118/1986_2545.

78 On the German position, based on the MPI Commission Meeting Minutes, see Eckert, ‘Vom “Matternhorn”’, 123–4. On Franco-German difficult postwar scientific collaboration, Corine Defrance, ‘France-Allemagne: une coopération scientifique “privilégiée” en Europe, de l'immédiat après-guerre au milieu des années 1980?’, in Corine Defrance and Anne Kwaschik, eds., La guerre froide et l'internationalisation des sciences. Acteurs, réseaux et institutions (Paris: Editions CNRS, 2016); Manfred Heinemann, ‘La France et le CNRS dans la politique scientifique de la Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (1948–1981)’, in Corine Defrance and Ulrich Pfeil, eds., La construction d'un espace scientifique commun? La France, la RFA et l'Europe après le ‘choc du Spoutnik’ (Bruxelles: Peter Lang, 2012).

79 Donato Palumbo, Note pour M.Guéron. Contrat Munich – conversations du 21 mai 1959, Bruxelles, 29 May 1959. HAEU, AC, BAC-118/1986_2545.

80 Letter from Biermann to Mathjsen, 15 Dec. 1959, transmitting a Projet de contrat entre l'Euratom et le Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, HAEU, AC, BAC-118/1986_2545.

81 Donato Palumbo, Note pour M. Guéron. Contrat Munich – Conversations du 21 mai 1959, Bruxelles, 29 May 1959. HAEU, AC, BAC-118/1986_2545.

82 Compte rendu des négociations avec le MPG à Göttingen, 19 Aug. 1959. HAEU, AC, BAC-118/1986_2545.

83 Note sur le contrat ‘fusion’ Munich, Bruxelles, 22 Feb. 1960, HAEU, AC, BAC-118/1986_2545.

84 Accord entre le Commissariat français à l’énergie atomique et l'organisation soviétique Glavatom sur les échanges de connaissances et de stagiaires notamment dans le domaine de la fusion contrôlée, Extrait du Procès-verbal de la réunion restrainte du Comité des représentants permanents, tenue à Bruxelles le 7 avril 1960. HAEU, Archives du Conseil des Ministres, CM2/1960-550.

85 Compte-rendu de la mission des 14 et 15 octobre 1960, Contrat fusion Munich (Max Planck Gesellschaft), HAEU, AC, BAC-118/1986_2545.

86 Energie nucléaire en République fédérale d'Allemagne: contrat fusion ‘Munich’; contrat avec le Max Planck Gesellschaft pour la recherche concernant la fusion nucléaire. Vol. 6, 1959–60, HAEU, AC, BAC-118/1986_2545.

87 Eckert, ‘Vom “Matternhorn”’, 124 and n.46 and 47.

88 Rapport 63/31, Contrôle comptable au contrat d'association Euratom/Institut Plasmaphysik, no 003-61-1 FUAD, HAEU, AC, BAC-118/1986_2545.

89 Eckert, ‘Solid-state’, 417.

90 Gary J. Weisel, ‘Properties and Phenomena: Basic Plasma Physics and Fusion Research in Postwar America’, Physics in Perspective, 10 (2008); Weisel, ‘The Plasma Archipelago’. On internal division and political-personal rivalries often exacerbated by the institutionalisation of the Sherwood project, see Bromberg, Fusion.

91 Rebut, L’énergie des étoiles, 220.

92 ‘Tensions of Europe: Technology and the Making of Europe’, special issue of History and Technology, 21 (2005), eds. Johan Schot, Thomas J. Misa and Ruth Oldenziel.

93 Wolfram Kaiser and Johan Schot, eds., Writing the Rules from Europe: Experts, Cartels, and International Organisations (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014); Martin Kohlrausch and Helmuth Trischler, eds., Building Europe on Expertise: Innovators, Organizers, Networkers (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014); Edgar Grande and Anke Peschke, ‘Transnational Cooperation and Policy Networks in European Science Policy-Making’, Research Policy, 28 (1999); Erik van der Vleuten and Arne Kaijser, eds., Networking Europe: Transnational Infrastructures and the shaping of Europe, 1850–2000 (Sagamore Beach: Science History Publications, 2006).

94 Luca Guzzetti, ed., Science and Power: The Historical Foundations of Research Policies in Europe (Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2000); Hallonsten, Olof, ‘Continuity and Change in the Politics of European Scientific Collaboration’, Journal of Contemporary European Research, 8, 3 (2012)Google Scholar.

95 Barbara Curli, ‘Une rhétorique de transition: la naissance d'Euratom et le discours sur la modernité technoscientifique européenne’, in Michel Dumoulin, Jürgen Elvert and Sylvain Schirmann, eds., Stratégies et acteurs/Strategies and actors. Construire l'Europe au XXème siècle/Building Europe in the XXth century. Liber amicorum Eric Bussière (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2022).

96 European Fusion Research. Report of the CERN Study Group on Fusion Problems, 2nd draft, 24 Mar. 1959, ASDF, EP, 16/73.

97 Kohlrausch and Trischler, Building Europe on Expertise, 224.

98 Euratom: contratto sulla fusione termonucleare e fisica del plasma (Laboratorio gas ionizzanti a Frascati), June 1964, Archivio storico CNEN, Centro ENEA, Casaccia, b. 1039.

99 Letter by Werner Heisenberg to Pierre Chatenet, President of the Euratom Commission, 26 Sept. 1963, HAEU, AC, BAC-118/1986_2545.

100 Letter by Werner Heisenberg to H.L. Krekeler, 14 Oct. 1963. HAEU, AC, BAC-118/1986_2545.

101 For a discussion on this aspect of Heisenberg's biography, see Carson, New Models for Science in Politics.

102 John Krige and Kai-Henrik Barth, ‘Science, Technology and International Affairs’, in John Krige and Kai-Henrik Barth, eds., Global Power Knowledge: Science and Technology in International Affairs, special issue, Osiris, 21 (2006).

103 Hallonsten, ‘Continuity and Change’; Pierre Papon, ‘European Scientific Cooperation and Research Infrastructures: Past Tendencies and Future Prospects’, Minerva, 42 (2004).

104 Helmuth Trischler and Hans Weinberger, ‘Engineering Europe: Big Technologies and Military Systems in the Making of 20th Century Europe’, History and Technology, 21, 1 (2005), 64.

105 For recent discussions on the complexity of writing on European cooperation overcoming stereotyped narratives, see Wolfram Kaiser and Richard McMahon, eds., Transnational Actors and Stories of European Integration: Clash of Narratives (London: Routledge, 2019); ‘Re-engaging Grand Theory: European Integration in the Twenty-first Century’, special issue, The Journal of European Public Policy, 26, 8 (2019); Kiran Klaus Patel and Wolfram Kaiser, ‘Continuity and Change in European Cooperation during the Twentieth Century’, Contemporary European History, 27 (2018); N. Piers Ludlow, ‘Widening, Deepening and Opening Out: Towards a Fourth Decade of European Integration History’, in Wilfried Loth, ed., Experiencing Europe: 50 Years of European Construction 1957–2007 (Baden-Baden: Nomos Verlag, 2009); Wolfram Kaiser and Antonio Varsori, eds., European Union History: Themes and Debates (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

106 Pease, The UK Fusion Programme.

107 Rapport du Groupe ad hoc ‘Fusion Thermonucléaire contrôlée’ au Comité consultatif de la recherche nucléaire, 30 mai 1968; Description des travaux exécutés dans le cadre des contrats d'association, Annexe au Rapport. HAEU, AC, BAC-118/1986_2251, 1962–1968.

108 This change affected also the US fusion programme, which, as Weisel writes, was pursued with renewed vigor, ‘no longer by Cold War technocrats, but by managers hoping to demonstrate that science could contribute to the public good’. Weisel ‘The Fusion Archipelago’, 218.

109 Archivio storico CNEN, Centro ENEA, Casaccia, b. 1039.