Splitting the atom : nuclear nationalism in Argentina and Brazil

Abstract

In 1991 Argentina and Brazil put past rivalries aside and created a binational agency endowed with supranational powers with the task of accounting for and controlling the peaceful nature of all nuclear material in both territories. While the speedy process towards nuclear regional integration had begun only six years before, the historical origin of such a remarkable agreement is to be found in the early developments of the two countries' nuclear programs. In the 1950s, under the aegis of the developmentalist state and a nationalist ideology, Argentine and Brazilian physicists, military and bureaucrats embarked on the project of creating a nuclear energy sector; in time Argentina and Brazil would end up with the two most developed programs in Latin America. Key to their success was the ideology that rose from the endeavor, "nuclear nationalism", which would guide the technological choices oriented towards greater development of local know-how and lesser dependence on foreign exports.

Despite the many similarities between the two nuclear programs, Argentines and Brazilians traveled two different paths towards regional nuclear integration. The development of the nuclear sector in Argentina was much more coherent and consensual than its counterpart in Brazil, where decentralization and disagreement were the norm. This paper offers a historical comparison between the two nuclear programs and shows why the ideological correspondence between Argentina and Brazil's community of nuclear experts was stronger than the sectoral divergences, and proved crucial in forging -almost four decades after the beginning of the programs- a regional partnership.