Abstract Summary
The major historical picture for the postwar nuclear landscape is the thesis of American ‘co-produced hegemony’ (Krige, 2008). According to this picture, the US government used its access to nuclear knowledge in order to both help postwar Europe rebuild its scientific infrastructure as well as securing US hegemony. More recently, however, the active role of European nations in the development of nuclear research infrastructure has been stressed by historians of science. The Belgian response to postwar nuclear research has until now received only scant attention from historians. This paper describes the early development of nuclear energy research in Belgium via Belgium’s nuclear research center SCK•CEN, founded in 1952. To what extent can the domains of politics, industry and science be seen as independent in the construction of Belgium’s nuclear research infrastructure? In which way was the training of nuclear scientists and engineers, as well as the construction of nuclear technology, shaped through national and international politics? And how did this in turn affect the organization of nuclear science in Belgium/at the SCK•CEN?
