HRP-IAEA

Goals

The main goals of the project have been to explore the:

International History of Radiation Protection

As a unique technoscientific and diplomatic organization, the IAEA embodies the defining feature of post-WWII nuclear research: political collaboration on an international level became the precondition for any international scientific cooperation. The Agency’s technical cooperation program—known earlier as technical assistance and criticized for furthering political tensions especially during the Cold War—played a major role in implementing radiation protection programs and funding specific research projects in the field worldwide. It promoted the notion of radiation risk, introduced the concept of safety culture, and eventually regulated the nuclear world. But how, when, and why did the IAEA conceive of radiation protection as a global problem that required a coordinated global solution? This project focused on the Agency’s programs of technical assistance and explored overlaps between science and diplomacy in decisions pertaining to the participating countries and in the prioritization of research themes.

Historical Relations of the IAEA to Other Regulatory Agencies

In the late 1950s the United Nations started to develop an international regulatory system for managing ionized radiation risks based heavily on the geopolitical division of the world. By establishing regulatory institutions such as the WHO and the IAEA, the UN elevated the problem of radiation risks to an international arena. Yet, the IAEA’s decision to draft its own radiation-safety recommendations in 1958 created tensions with other already existing regulatory institutions. How did the IAEA relate to institutions such as the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labour Office (ILO), and the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) with respect to radiation health and safety? Throughout the project we explored IAEA’s collaborations with WHO in establishing a global ionizing radiation program starting in early 1960s. We studied the IAEA-ILO relations and their actions on occupational radiation protection. We investigated how the IAEA was related to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, the economic organization that was under the leadership of the Soviet Union and initiated programs of radiation protection in the countries of the Eastern Bloc.

Standardization and Implementation

The conceptual analysis of standardization is key to understanding scientific work at the interface of laboratory and clinical or industrial practice. In the case of the IAEA, the standardization of instruments, measuring devices, units of measurement, objects, procedures, and technical vocabulary has been a technical-cum-political enterprise: a tool for governing the world. We identified the social and political aims behind these standards and focused on the most important controversies among scientists, their relations to diplomats and politicians, as well as IAEA’s standardization practices and their global circulation. Since the standardization process requires a tremendous amount of human labor, we tried to investigate the gender profile of those working in radiation protection. One of the questions we asked is how ionizing radiation targeted and affected differently men and women throughout the history of the 20th century.

Methodology

Key to the project has been the textual analysis of published and unpublished sources we identified primarily in the IAEA archive and website. We also benefited by archival research at WHO, the National Archives in College Park, the archives of the UN in New York, the Oak Ridge archives, the archives of the International Labor Office (ILO), the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) archives, and others that were discovered to be useful. Using methods from all disciplines—history, philosophy and sociology of science and international history— we placed these texts in a social field of forces and, at the same time, attempted to analyze them conceptually.

Employing oral-history methodology (topical histories type), the project produced a rare oral-history resource on key themes such as science diplomacy, the design and implementation of radiation protection strategies in the IAEA and other regulatory institutions, and the IAEA technical assistance projects on radiation protection. It took us years to establish relations of mutual trust among those who we interviewed and their institutions. Face-to-face interviews provided first-hand information for the issues at hand.

We also used historical images not as decorative parts of our stories but as points of entry to our case studies, as excuses for asking historical questions, and often as representations of images and objects that otherwise have been lost.

Results

Radiation Protection as a Diplomatic Act

by Maria Rentetzi

Setting Radiation Protection Standards

by Maria Rentetzi and Aske Nielsen

The Global Experiment

by Maria Rentetzi

From Lobbyists to Backstage Diplomats

by Alexandros-Andreas Kyrtsis and Maria Rentetzi

Ruling the world with Françoise in a suitcase

by Maria Rentetzi

Sharing the “Safe” Atom?

by Angela N. H. Creager and Maria Rentetzi

A Diplomatic Gift

by Maria Rentetzi

Science Diplomacy on Display

by Maria Rentetzi and Donatella Germanese

Diplomacy in the Time of Cholera

by Maria Rentetzi, Flavio D’Abramo and Roberto Lalli

Glove Boxes, Radiation Protection, and the International Atomic Energy Agency

by Maria Rentetzi

“Atomic” Messages: Stamps, Seals, and Postal Envelopes as Archival Sources

by Loukas Freris

How to standardize radiation?

by Aske Nielsen

Our Team

What do you get when you combine knowledge, international backgrounds, excellent research, willingness to support your peer, and a friendly environment? The HRP-IAEA team. This project requires copious amounts of labor! Our team is highly international, interdisciplinary and strongly dedicated. We ail aim to enhance our learning environment through hosting international meetings, organizing thematic schools, inviting senior and junior scholars in our field, conducting innovative and transnational research, and…having fun.

Prof. Dr. Maria Rentetzi

Principal investigator

Trained as a physicist, historian of science and STS scholar, Rentetzi’s research focuses on nuclear diplomacy and gender in science and technology.

Ariadne Papageorgiou

Coordinator

Dr. Kapil Patil

Postdoctoral Fellow

Patil examines how the IAEA mediated diverse techno-political interests to institutionalize global radiation safety governance in the post-Cold War years.

Dr. Aske Nielsen

Postdoctoral Fellow

Nielsen works on the early development of radiation protection standards by the IAEA and the Agency’s cooperation with other international bodies.

Irina Fedorova

PhD Student

Fedorova investigates the early relations between the IAEA and the Soviet-led Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.

Loukas Freris

PhD Student

Freris explores the political and diplomatic aspects of nuclear research and radiation protection policies in postwar Greece.

Mohamed Elsayed

PhD Student

Elsayed is a Ph.D. candidate and research assistant in the ERC-Project “Living with Radiation: The History of Radiation Protection and the International Atomic Energy Agency” (HRP-IAEA)

Ismail Barakat

Media Advisor

Emil Fischer

Webmaster

Publications

Nielsen, Aske Hennelund, Patil, Kapil, Freris, Loukas and Elsayed, Mohamed. „Nuclear Research in Medicine after the Second World War“. Published 28/06/2023. https://www.hsozkult.de/conferencereport/id/fdkn-137118.

Rentetzi, Maria, Angela Creager, and Susan Lindee, eds. Negotiating Radiation Protection. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press

Patil, Kapil, and Maria Rentetzi. “Between Too Strict or Too Lax: The IAEA and the Evolution of Nuclear Safety Standards.” In Negotiating Radiation Protection, edited by Rentetzi, Maria et al. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

Rentetzi, Maria, and Loukas Freris. “Attaching Diplomatic Significance to Laboratories: The IAEA’s Mobile Laboratories Become Diplomatic Bags.”

Hennelund Nielsen, Aske, and Maria Rentetzi. “The Search for Radiation Standards: Binational Science Diplomacy in the International Radiological Committee in the Interwar.”

Rentetzi, Maria, and Donatella Germanese, eds. “Science Diplomacy on Display: Mobile Atomic Exhibitions in the Cold War.” Annals of Science 80, no. 1 (2023): 1–9

Rentetzi, Maria. Seduced By Radium: How Industry Transformed Science in the American Marketplace. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2022.

Rentetzi, Maria, ed. “The Politics of Radiation Protection.” NTM: Journal of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine 30, no. 2 (2022): 125–35.

Rentetzi, Maria. 2022. “The Japanese Art of Bowing and the Nuclear Anthropocene.” Anthropocene Curriculum, April 22, 2022. https://www.anthropocene-curriculum.org/contribution/the-japanese-art-of-bowing-and-the-nuclear-anthropocene.

Rentetzi, Maria. “The Male Business of Nuclear Diplomacy.” Nuclear Newswire, November 30, 2022. https://www.ans.org/news/tag-maria%20rentetzi/.

Rentetzi, Maria, and Spyros Petrounakos. “Frontline Health Diplomacy Must Incorporate Diplomacy and Ethics.” Diplomatic Courier, October 15, 2022. https://www.diplomaticourier.com/posts/frontline-health-diplomacy-must-incorporate-philosophy-and-ethics.

Rentetzi, Maria. “Why Scientific Sanctions Do Not Work.” Diplomatic Courier, May 31, 2022. https://www.diplomaticourier.com/posts/scientific-sanctions-do-not-work.

Patil, Kapil, and Maria Rentetzi. “War in Ukraine Heralds a More Personalized and Politicized Science Diplomacy.” London School of Economics Research Online, August 12, 2022. http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/116517/.

Rentetzi, Maria and Kapil Patil. “Ukraine War and the Abiding Hope of Science Diplomacy.” Diplomat Magazine, July 31, 2022. https://diplomatmagazine.eu/2022/07/31/ukraine-war-and-the-abiding-hope-of-science-diplomacy/.

Ito, Kenji, and Maria Rentetzi, eds. “The Co-production of Nuclear Science and Diplomacy: Towards a Transnational Understanding of Nuclear Things.” History and Technology 37, no. 1 (2021): 4–20.

Rentetzi, Maria, and Kenji Ito. “The Material Culture and Politics of Artifacts in Nuclear Diplomacy.” Centaurus 63, no. 2 (2021): 233–43.

Rentetzi, Maria. “The Global Experiment: How the International Atomic Energy Agency Proved Dosimetry to Be a Techno-Diplomatic Issue.” NTM: Journal of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine 37, no. 1 (2021): 167–95. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00048-022-00336-9.

Rentetzi, Maria, Flavio D’Abramo, and Roberto Lalli. “Diplomacy in the Time of Cholera.” Sociology of Science and Technology 12, no. 1 (2021): 34–41.

Kyrtsis, Alexandros-Andreas, and Maria Rentetzi. “From Lobbyists to Backstage Diplomats: How Insurers in the Field of Third-Party Liability Shaped Nuclear Diplomacy.” History and Technology 37, no. 1 (2021): 25–43.

Rentetzi, Maria. “A Comment on Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection from a Historian of Science.” Cancer Studies and Therapeutics 6, no. 1 (2021): 1–2.

Rentetzi, Maria. “With Strings Attached: Gift-Giving to the International Atomic Energy Agency and US Foreign Policy.” Endeavor 45, no. 1–2 (2021).

Rentetzi, Maria. “From Securing the State to Safeguarding the Atom: The Relevance of History to Nuclear Diplomacy.” Science Diplomacy Review 3, no. 1 (2021): 3–12.

Creager, Angela, and Maria Rentetzi. “Sharing the ‘Safe’ Atom? The International Atomic Energy Agency and Nuclear Regulation Through Standardization.” In Living in a Nuclear World: Order, Knowledge, and Normalization, edited by Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Soraya Boudia, and Kyoko Sato, 111–31. New York: Routledge, 2021.

Living with Radiation

The Role of the International Atomic Energy Agency in the History of Radiation Protection (1957-2023)

Goals

The main goals of the project have been to explore the:

International History of Radiation Protection

Historical Relations of the IAEA to Other Regulatory Agencies

Standardization and Implementation

Methodology

Results

Radiation Protection as a Diplomatic Act

Setting Radiation Protection Standards

The Global Experiment

From Lobbyists to Backstage Diplomats

Ruling the world with Françoise in a suitcase

Sharing the “Safe” Atom?

A Diplomatic Gift

Science Diplomacy on Display

Diplomacy in the Time of Cholera

Glove Boxes, Radiation Protection, and the International Atomic Energy Agency

“Atomic” Messages: Stamps, Seals, and Postal Envelopes as Archival Sources

How to standardize radiation?

Our Team

Principal investigator

Trained as a physicist, historian of science and STS scholar, Rentetzi’s research focuses on nuclear diplomacy and gender in science and technology.

Coordinator

Postdoctoral Fellow

Patil examines how the IAEA mediated diverse techno-political interests to institutionalize global radiation safety governance in the post-Cold War years.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Nielsen works on the early development of radiation protection standards by the IAEA and the Agency’s cooperation with other international bodies.

PhD Student

Fedorova investigates the early relations between the IAEA and the Soviet-led Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.

PhD Student

Freris explores the political and diplomatic aspects of nuclear research and radiation protection policies in postwar Greece.

PhD Student

Elsayed is a Ph.D. candidate and research assistant in the ERC-Project “Living with Radiation: The History of Radiation Protection and the International Atomic Energy Agency” (HRP-IAEA)

Media Advisor

Webmaster

Publications

2023

2022

2021