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ABSTRACT
Top French officials made plans in early 1960 to transform an abandoned silver mine in Corsica, called the Argentella Massif, into an underground site for nuclear explosions. By June 1960, they had canceled these plans. This article shows how a mass movement on the Mediterranean island forced their hand, and it explains why Corsicans of diverse political affiliations took to the streets. The Argentella project—and the health, environmental, and strategic risks that it entailed—looked in Corsica like evidence that Paris saw the islanders as second-class citizens, even residents of an internal colony. French police intelligence, which maintained surveillance on the Corsican anti-nuclear movement, feared that this movement might have drawn inspiration from the contemporaneous struggle for national liberation in Algeria, where French nuclear explosions began. The Argentella protests illustrated national disagreements about French nuclear ambitions that previous scholarship, proposing official consensus, has minimized. They show how, in a nuclear-armed democracy, local officials, political activists, and ordinary citizens can shape nuclear-weapons policy. But Corsican anti-nuclear action in 1960 did not demand disarmament. These protests also illuminate a longer trajectory in French nuclear history, which involved atmospheric explosions in colonized territories in Algeria and Polynesia until the 1970s, despite local and international resistance.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Anne Renucci at the Archives départementales de la Corse-du-Sud in Ajaccio for making available key documents for my research. This article benefited from feedback on an earlier version presented in January 2022 at the “Des essais au désert” conference in Paris organized by Renaud Meltz and Alexis Vrignon. I am also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers whose comments on this text substantially improved it. I thank Thomas Fraise, Sarah Miles, Benoît Pelopidas, and John Krige for conversations about this project. An interdisciplinary grant from the graduate-student association and the provost’s office at the University of Pennsylvania made my travel to Corsica possible, and the Fulbright–Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad program supported my research in Paris.
Correction Statement
This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 Admiral Marcel Duval, “Pierre Guillaumat et l’arme atomique” [Pierre Guillaumat and atomic weapons], in Georges-Henri Soutou and Alain Beltran, eds., Pierre Guillaumat: La passion des grands projets industriels [Pierre Guillaumat’s passion for large industrial projects] (Paris: Editions Rive Droite, 1995), pp. 48–49. Unless otherwise noted, all translations in this article are by the author.
2 Gen. Ely to Prime Minister (Michel Debré), “Expérimentations nucléaires souterraines” [Underground nuclear experiments], April 12, 1960, No. 1103/CEMGDN/CAB, Archives of the French Atomic Energy Commission’s Division of Military Applications (CEA-DAM), via <https://www.memoiredeshommes.sga.defense.gouv.fr/>.
3 Jean-Marc Regnault, “France’s Search for Nuclear Test Sites, 1957–1963,” Journal of Military History, Vol. 67, No. 4 (2003), p. 1230.
4 Lionel Luciani, “Affaire de l’Argentella: Quand la France voulait faire de la Corse son laboratoire nucléaire” [The Argentella scandal: when France wanted to make Corsica its nuclear laboratory], France 3 Corse ViaStella, May 29, 2020, <https://france3-regions.francetvinfo.fr/corse/affaire-argentella-quand-france-voulait-faire-corse-son-laboratoire-nucleaire-1835334.html>.
5 Peter Savigear, “Corsica,” in Michael Watson, ed., Contemporary Minority Nationalism (London: Routledge, 1990), pp. 86–99.
6 Maurice Vaïsse, “Le choix atomique de la France (1945–1958)” [France’s atomic choice (1945–1958)], Vingtième siècle: Revue d’histoire [Twentieth century: a history journal], Vol. 36, No. 1 (1992), pp. 21–30.
7 On other characteristics of this literature, see Benoît Pelopidas and Sébastien Philippe, “Unfit for Purpose: Reassessing the Development and Deployment of French Nuclear Weapons (1956–1974),” Cold War History, Vol. 21, No. 3 (2021), pp. 243–60.
8 Dominique Mongin, La bombe atomique française, 1945–1958 [The French atomic bomb, 1945–1958] (Brussels: Bruylant, 1997), p. 456.
9 Grey Anderson, “The Civil War in France, 1958–62,” PhD diss., Yale University, 2016, pp. 365–90.
10 Camille Grand, “A French Nuclear Exception?” Henry L. Stimson Center Occasional Papers, No. 38, January 1998, p. 22.
11 Benoît Pelopidas, Repenser les choix nucléaires [Rethinking nuclear choices] (Paris: Presses de SciencesPo, 2022), p. 234 n. 47.
12 On Polynesia, see Sébastien Philippe and Tomas Statius, Toxique: Enquête sur les essais nucléaires français en Polynésie [Toxic: an investigation of the French nuclear tests in Polynesia] (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2021). See also Anna Konieczna, “Nuclear Twins: French–South African Strategic Cooperation (1964–79),” Cold War History, Vol. 21, No. 3 (2021), pp. 283–300; Jayita Sarkar, “From the Dependable to the Demanding Partner: The Renegotiation of French Nuclear Cooperation with India, 1974–80,” Cold War History, Vol. 21, No. 3 (2021), pp. 301–18.
13 Lawrence Wittner, Resisting the Bomb: A History of the World Nuclear Disarmament Movement, 1954–1970 (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997), pp. 230–35.
14 Vladimir-Claude Fišera, “The New Left in France from the Resistance to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (1943–1968): Interview with Claude Bourdet,” Journal of Area Studies Vol. 2, No. 4 (1981), pp. 22–23.
15 Jean Allman, “Nuclear Imperialism and the Pan-African Struggle for Peace and Freedom: Ghana, 1959–1962,” Souls, Vol. 10, No. 2 (2008), pp. 83–102; Mervyn O’Driscoll, “Explosive Challenge: Diplomatic Triangles, the United Nations, and the Problem of French Nuclear Testing, 1959–1960,” Journal of Cold War Studies, Vol. 11, No. 1 (2009), pp. 28–56; Vincent J. Intondi, African Americans against the Bomb: Nuclear Weapons, Colonialism, and the Black Freedom Movement (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2015), pp. 45–61.
16 Rob Skinner, “Bombs and Border Crossings: Peace Activist Networks and the Post-colonial State in Africa, 1959–62,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 50, No. 3 (2015), pp. 424–25.
17 Austin R. Cooper, “How to Hide a Nuclear Explosion: French Secrets about Saharan Fallout across Decolonizing Africa,” in Jacob D. Hamblin and Linda M. Richards, eds., Making the Unseen Visible: Science and the Contested Histories of Radiation Exposure (Corvallis, OR: Oregon State University Press, forthcoming).
18 For a treatment of African anti-nuclear and anti-colonial criticism as little more than anti-French propaganda, see Colette Barbier, “L’Afrique face aux premières expérimentations nucléaires françaises” [Africa facing the first French nuclear experiments], Cahiers du centre d’études d’histoire de la defense [Papers of the Center for Defense History Studies], No. 8 (1998), pp. 109–34; for an example of overlooking these interactions, see Groupe d’Études Français d’Histoire de l’Armement Nucléaire (GREFHAN), Les expérimentations nucléaires françaises [The French nuclear experiments] (Paris: Institut de France, 1992).
19 Anaïs Maurer and Rebecca H. Hogue, “Introduction: Transnational Nuclear Imperialisms,” Journal of Transnational American Studies, Vol. 11, No. 2 (2020), pp. 25–43; Roxanne Panchasi, “‘No Hiroshima in Africa’: The Algerian War and the Question of French Nuclear Tests in the Sahara,” History of the Present, Vol 9, No. 1 (2019), pp. 84–112.
20 For an important exception, see work by the anthropologist and activist Bengt Danielsson and Marie-Thérèse Danielsson, also an activist and his wife—for example, Danielsson and Danielsson, Poisoned Reign: French Nuclear Colonialism in the Pacific (Ringwood, Australia: Penguin Books, 1986).
21 This point builds on Todd Shepard, The Invention of Decolonization: The Algerian War and the Remaking of France (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008).
22 J. Robert, “Réunion du 29 décembre 1959 concernant les explosions nucléaires souterraines” [Meeting on December 29, 1959 regarding underground nuclear explosions], January 4, 1960, 26/K/10.189, CEA-DAM Archives.
23 On DREM activities and their importance to CEA goals, see Matthew Adamson, “Nuclear Reach: Uranium Prospection and the Global Ambitions of the French Nuclear Programme, 1945–65,” Cold War History, Vol. 21, No. 3 (2021), pp. 319–36; Matthew Adamson, “Les Liaisons Dangereuses: Resource Surveillance, Uranium Diplomacy and Secret French–American Collaboration in 1950s Morocco,” British Journal for the History of Science, Vol. 49, No. 1 (2016), pp. 79–105.
24 B. Imbert, “Projet Vulcain: Reconnaissance en Corse” [Project Vulcan: reconnaissance in Corsica], 26/K/1.259, February 1, 1960, pp. 1–3, CEA-DAM Archives.
25 Jean-Damien Pô, Les moyens de la puissance: Les activités militaires du CEA (1945–2000) [The means of power: the CEA’s military activities (1945–2000)] (Paris: Ellipses, 2001), p. 133.
26 Imbert, “Projet Vulcain,” pp. 3–4.
27 Imbert, pp. 4–5.
28 J. Barreau, “Reconnaissance en Corse du 18 au 22 janvier 1960” [Reconnaissance in Corsica from 18 to 22 January 1960,” February 1, 1960, CEA-DAM Archives.
29 Imbert, pp. 5.
30 Imbert, pp. 6–7.
31 Imbert, p. 7.
32 Panchasi, “No Hiroshima in Africa,” pp. 98–99.
33 Imbert, “Projet Vulcain,” pp. 8–11.
34 Imbert, pp. 4, 10–11.
35 Gen. Ely to Premier Ministre (Debré), Ministre Délégué (Guillaumat), Ministre des Armées (Messmer), “Expérimentations nucléaires souterraines” [Underground nuclear experiments], n.d., 26/K/245, CEA-DAM Archives.
36 Exposé de M. Mabile (Directeur, DREM), “Recherche d’un site souterrain, 10e reunion du C.A.M.E.A.” [Search for an underground site, 10th meeting of the Committee on Military Applications of Atomic Energy], March 31, 1960, 26/K/213, CEA-DAM Archives.
37 For one participant’s account, see Pierre Billaud and Venance Journé, “The Real Story Behind the Making of the French Hydrogen Bomb,” Nonproliferation Review, Vol. 15, No. 2 (2008), pp. 353–72.
38 RG, Direction générale de la Sûreté nationale, Ministère de l'Intérieur, “Voyage en Corse de M. Guillaumat, ministre délégué auprès du premier ministre” [Minister Delegate Guillaumat’s trip to Corsica], April 14, 1960, Protestations contre les expériences nucléaires en Corse, Généralités, 1361W101, Archives départementales de la Corse-du-Sud (ADCS), Ajaccio, France.
39 RG, “Création d’un centre atomique d’expérimentations souterraines en Corse” [Creation of an atomic facility for underground experiments in Corsica], April 14, 1960, Généralités, 1361W101, ADCS.
40 For the arguments made about Polynesia, see Daniel Sherman, French Primitivism and the Ends of Empire, 1945–1975 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), pp. 153–76.
41 Renaud Meltz, “Construire le CEP” [Building the CEP (Pacific test site)], in Renaud Meltz and Alexis Vrignon, eds., Des bombes en Polynésie: Les essais nucléaires français dans le Pacifique [Bombs in Polynesia: the French nuclear tests in the Pacific] (Paris: Vendémiaire, 2022), pp. 91–142.
42 Gabrielle Hecht, The Radiance of France: Nuclear Power and National Identity after World War II (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998).
43 RG, “Projet de création d’un centre d'expériences nucléaires souterraines en Corse” [Plan for creating a facility for underground nuclear tests in Corsica], April 15, 1960, Généralités, 1361W101, ADCS (emphasis added).
44 John Krige, “Atoms for Peace, Scientific Internationalism, and Scientific Intelligence,” Osiris, Vol. 21, No. 1 (2006), pp. 161–81.
45 On Tunisia as a case study, see Austin R. Cooper, “The Tunisian Request: Saharan Fallout, U.S. Assistance, and the Making of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Cold War History, Vol. 22, No. 4 (2022), pp. 407–36.
46 RG, “Projet de création d’un centre d’expériences nucléaires souterraines en Corse.”
47 Hecht, The Radiance of France, ch. 4.
48 “Non! à la mort atomique” [No to atomic death!], enclosed with RG, “Campagne communiste de protestation contre la création d’un centre d’expériences nucléaires souterraines en Corse” [Communist protest campaign against the creation of a facility for underground nuclear tests in Corsica], April 16, 1960, Généralités, 1361W101, ADCS.
49 Lionel Luciani, Marc-Antoine Renucci, Vanessa Culioli, and Sylvie Loigerot, “60 ans de l’Argentella” [60 years since the Argentella], France 3 Corse ViaStella, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koowDWO6DOE>, 2:45–3:30.
50 RG, “Campagne communiste de protestation contre la création d’un centre d’expériences nucléaires souterraines en Corse.”
51 RG, “Installation d’une station expérimentale nucléaire à l’Argentella” [Building an experimental nuclear station at the Argentella], April 16, 1960, Généralités, 1361W101, ADCS.
52 RG, “Projet d’installation d’une station expérimentale nucléaire dans le massif de ‘l’Argentella’ près de Calvi,” [Plan to build an experimental nuclear station in the Argentella Massif near Calvi], April 20, 1960, Généralités, 1361W101, ADCS.
53 RG, “A/S du projet d’installation d’un Centre nucléaire en Corse” [Regarding the plan to build a nuclear facility in Corsica], April 22, 1960, Généralités, 1361W101, ADCS.
54 Jeffrey Richelson, Spying on the Bomb: American Nuclear Intelligence from Nazi Germany to Iran and North Korea (New York: Norton, 2007), ch. 5.
55 Marseille (Edgar) to State, “Corsicans Protest Planned Nuclear Test Center,” April 25, 1960, no. 116, Folder 2.22a, Nuclear Weapons Tests, 4/1/60–12/1/60, Part 4 of 4, Box 61, Office of the Secretary, Special Assistant to the Secretary of State for Atomic Energy and Outer Space, General Records Relating to Disarmament (1942–62), Records of the US Department of State (Records Group 59), National Archives and Records Administration, Site II, College Park, MD.
56 “Projet d’implantation d’un centre d’explosions souterraines en Corse” [Plan to build a facility for underground explosions in Corsica], April 14, 1960, enclosed with O. Guichard to de Courcel, Brouillet, Foccart, Maillard, Tricot, Lelong, de Bordas, April 22, 1960, “Explosion souterraine en Corse—1960” [Underground explosion in Corsica—1960], AG/5(1)/2616, Fonds Charles de Gaulle, Archives nationales, Pierrefitte-sur-Seine, France.
57 Scott Kirsch, Proving Grounds: Project Plowshare and the Unrealized Dream of Nuclear Earthmoving (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2005).
58 RG, “Campagne de protestation contre le projet de création en Corse d’un centre d’essais nucléaires souterrains” [Protest campaign against the plan to create a facility for underground nuclear tests in Corsica], April 23, 1960, Généralités, 1361W101, ADCS.
59 Debré to Seta, April 23, 1960, enclosed with RG, “Projet d’installation d’un Centre d’Expériences nucléaires en Corse” [Plan to build a facility for nuclear tests in Corsica], April 30, 1960, Généralités, 1361W101, ADCS.
60 Christian Bataille and Henri Revol, Rapport parlementaire sur les incidences environnementales et sanitaires des essais nucléaires effectuées par la France entre 1960 et 1996 [Parliamentary report on the environmental and health effects of the nuclear tests conducted by France between 1960 and 1996] (Paris: French Parliament, 2001), pp. 34–45, <https://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/legislatures/11/pdf/rap-oecst/i3571.pdf>.
61 Debré to Seta, April 23, 1960.
62 Renaud Meltz, “Pourquoi la Polynésie?” [Why Polynesia?], in Renaud Meltz and Alexis Vrignon, eds., Des bombes en Polynésie: Les essais nucléaires français dans le Pacifique [Bombs in Polynesia: the French nuclear tests in the Pacific] (Paris: Vendémiaire, 2022), pp. 59–60.
63 RG, “Projet d’installation d’un centre d’essais nucléaires en Corse” [Plan to build a facility for nuclear tests in Corsica], May 3, 1960, Généralités, 1361W101, ADCS.
64 Fernand Poli, “Non! Monsieur Debré! Il faut que vous entendiez la voix de la raison !” [No! Mr. Debré! You must hear the voice of reason!], Journal de la Corse [Corsica’s newspaper], May 2–3, 1960.
65 “Les Corses de Paris, qui se réunissent aujourd’hui, ont adressé une lettre ouverte à M. Michel Debré” [The Corsicans living in Paris, who are meeting today, sent an open letter to Mr. Michel Debré], Journal de la Corse, April 26, 1960.
66 RG, “Les parlementaires Corses et le projet d’installation d’un centre d’essais nucléaires a l’Argentella” [The Corsican representatives and the plan to build a facility for nuclear tests at the Argentella], April 30, 1960, Généralités, 1361W101, ADCS.
67 “M. Debré, qui a reçu nos parlementaires, leur a donné des assurances engageantes, notamment sur la renonciation du projet atomique de l’Argentella” [Mr. Debré, who met with our representatives, gave them promising assurances, notably on the renunciation of the atomic plan for the Argentella], Le Courrier de la Corse [Corsica’s messenger], May 7, 1960; “A l’issue de l’entretien de M. Debré avec les parlementaires corses, on ne peut encore savoir si le gouvernement renonce à son projet de création d’un centre d’expériences nucléaires” [Following Mr. Debré’s conversation with the Corsican representatives, we still cannot know if the government is renouncing its plan to create a facility for nuclear tests], Insulaire [Islander], May 16, 1960.
68 Le préfet de la Corse (B. Vaugon) to Prime Minister (Debré), “Projet de création en Corse d’un centre souterrain d’expérimentations nucléaires” [Plan to create an underground center for nuclear experiments in Corsica], June 3, 1960, 443W34, ADCS.
69 RG, “Campagne de protestation contre le projet de création en Corse d’un Centre d’expérimentations nucléaires souterraines” [Protest campaign against the plan to create a facility for underground nuclear experiments in Corsica], May 17, 1960, Généralités, 1361W101, ADCS.
70 Peter Savigear, “Separatism and Centralism in Corsica,” World Today, Vol. 36, No. 9 (1980), pp. 351–55.
71 Donald Reid, “Colonizer and Colonized in the Corsican Political Imagination,” Radical History Review, No. 90 (2004), pp. 116–22.
72 The sociolinguistic scholarship concurs on the 1970s’ pivotal role in this timeline; see Alexandra Jaffe, Ideologies in Action: Language Politics on Corsica (Berlin: de Gruyter, 1999), pp. 126–28; Robert J. Blackwood, The State, the Activists and the Islanders: Language Policy on Corsica (Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer, 2008), pp. 58–61.
73 RG, “P.C.F.,” April 23, 1960, Généralités, 1361W101, ADCS.
74 “Par tous les moyens, Non aux explosions atomiques” [By any means necessary, no to atomic explosions], enclosed with RG, “Campagne de protestation,” April 25, 1960.
75 Hecht, The Radiance of France, pp. 73–74.
76 Thomas Fraise, “Governing Nuclear Secrecy: A Comparative Study of Nuclear Secrecy Regimes in Liberal Democratic States (1939–1974),” PhD diss., SciencesPo Paris, in progress.
77 RG, “Centre d’expériences nucléaires de l’Argentella” [The Argentella facility for nuclear tests], April 25, 1960, Comité Ajaccio, Comités, 1361W101, ADCS.
78 See Adam Shatz, “Colombey-les-deux-Mosquées,” London Review of Books, Vol. 37, No. 7 (2015) <https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n07/adam-shatz/colombey-les-deux-mosquees>; the original quote comes from Alain Peyrefitte, C’était de Gaulle, Vol. 1 (Paris: Fayard, 2002), ch. 6.
79 RG, “Campagne de protestation contre le projet de création en Corse d’un centre d’expérimentations nucléaires souterraines” [Protest campaign against the plan to create a facility for underground nuclear explosions in Corsica], April 21, 1960, Comité Ajaccio, Comités, 1361W101, ADCS.
80 RG, “Campagne de protestation.”
81 RG, “Centre d’essais nucléaires de l’Argentella” [The Argentella facility for nuclear tests], May 21, 1960, Comité départemental, Comités, 1361W101, ADCS.
82 RG, “Centre d’essais nucléaires de l’Argentella” [The Argentella facility for nuclear tests], April 29, 1960, Calvi, Manifestations, 1361W101, ADCS.
83 RG, “Centre d’essais nucléaires de l’Argentella,” [The Argentella facility for nuclear tests], May 5, 1960 and May 3, 1960, Bastia, Manifestations, 1361W101, ADCS.
84 RG, “Centre d’essais nucléaires de l’Argentella” [The Argentella facility for nuclear tests], May 6, 1960, Bastia, Manifestations, 1361W101, ADCS.
85 RG, “Campagne de protestation contre le projet gouvernemental de création d’un centre d’expérimentations nucléaires souterraines en Corse” [Protest campaign against the government plan to create a facility for underground nuclear experiments in Corsica], April 28, 1960, Ajaccio, Manifestations, 1361W101, ADCS.
86 RG, “Opposition de la population de la Corse à l’installation d’un centre d’essais d’explosions nucléaires souterraines dans l'île” [Opposition of the population of Corsica to building a facility for tests of underground nuclear explosions on the island], May 4, 1960, Ajaccio, Manifestations, 1361W101, ADCS.
87 Peter Holland, “Jean-Pierre Vigier at Seventy-Five: La Lutte Continue,” Foundations of Physics, Vol. 25, No. 1 (1995), pp. 1–4.
88 Austin R. Cooper, “Saharan Fallout: French Explosions in Algeria and the Politics of Nuclear Risk during African Decolonization (1960–66),” PhD diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2022, pp. 71–83.
89 RG, “Protestation contre les essais nucléaires” [Protest against the nuclear tests], May 12, 1960, Conférences J.-P. Vigier, Manifestations, 1361W101, ADCS.
90 Vaïsse, “Le choix atomique de la France”; Mongin, La bombe atomique française.
91 RG, “Protestation contre les essais nucléaires” [Protest against the nuclear tests], May 13, 1960; RG, “Note d’Information” [Informational note], May 15, 1960; both in Conférences J.-P. Vigier, Manifestations, 1361W101, ADCS.
92 RG, “Campagne contre la création en Corse d’un centre d'expérimentations nucléaires souterraines” [Campaign against the creation of a facility for underground nuclear experiments in Corsica], May 14, 1960, Conférences J.-P. Vigier, Manifestations, 1361W101, ADCS.
93 On the Japanese experience, see Susan Lindee, Suffering Made Real: American Science and the Survivors at Hiroshima (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).
94 RG, “Campagne contre la création en Corse d’un centre d'expérimentations nucléaires,” May 14, 1960.
95 “Sartène, une conférence de M. J.-P. Vigier, sur le danger des expériences atomiques” [Sartène, a lecture by Mr. J.-P. Vigier, on the danger of atomic tests], Nice-Matin, May 16, 1960; “Sartène, le savant J. P. Vigier, du C.N.R.S, expose, dans une conférence, les très graves dangers des expériences atomiques” [Sartène, the expert J.-P. Vigier, of the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), reveals in a lecture the very serious dangers of atomic tests], La Marseillaise, May 17, 1960.
96 “Le savant atomiste, J.-P. Vigier: L'Île de Beauté deviendra, au fil des ans, l'île des monstres, si on laisse le gouvernement réaliser son projet” [The atomic expert J.-P. Vigier: the Island of Beauty will become, over the years, the island of monsters, if we let the government carry out its plan], La Marseillaise, May 13, 1960.
97 RG, “Activité du Comité d’Ajaccio contre le projet d’expériences nucléaires souterraines en Corse” [Activity of the Ajaccio Committee against the plan for underground nuclear tests in Corsica], May 27, 1960, Comité Ajaccio, Comités, 1361W101, ADCS.
98 Vaugon to Debré, “Projet de création en Corse d’un centre souterrain d’expérimentations nucléaires.”
99 RG, “Campagne de protestation contre le projet de création en Corse d’un centre d’expérimentations nucléaires” [Protest campaign against the plan to create a facility for nuclear experiments in Corsica], June 13, 1960, Généralités, 1361W101, ADCS.
100 “Une grande victoire” [A great victory], enclosed with RG, “Campagne de protestation contre le projet de création en Corse d’un centre d’expérimentations nucléaires,” June 13, 1960.
101 J. Viard, “Recherche d’un site souterrain” [Search for an underground site], December 16, 1966, 26/KA/1474, CEA-DAM Archives.
102 Sébastien Philippe, Sonya Schoenberger, and Nabil Ahmed, “Radiation Exposures and Compensation of Victims of French Atmospheric Nuclear Tests in Polynesia,” Science & Global Security (September 2022), pp. 1–33.
103 For discussion of a place of this kind that was not a test site, see Kristian H. Nielsen, Henry Nielsen, and Janet Martin-Nielsen, “City under the Ice: The Closed World of Camp Century in Cold War Culture,” Science as Culture, Vol. 23, No. 4 (2014), pp. 443–64.
104 Robert A. Jacobs, Nuclear Bodies: The Global Hibakusha (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2022), p. 5.
105 Susan Lindee, Rational Fog: Science and Technology in Modern War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020), ch. 8.
106 J. Franck et al., “A Report to the Secretary of War, June 1945,” Federation of American Scientists, <https://sgp.fas.org/eprint/franck.html>.
107 Renaud Meltz and Alexis Vrignon, “Des essais au désert? Pour une histoire comparée et transnationale des sites des essais nucléaires” [Tests in the desert? Towards a comparative and transnational history of nuclear test sites], January 2022 <https://www.cresat.uha.fr/colloque-nucleaire-2022/>.
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Austin R. Cooper
Austin R. Cooper is a Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow in the security studies program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His article, “The Tunisian Request: Saharan Fallout, U.S. Assistance, and the Making of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” was published in Cold War History, Vol. 22, No. 4 (2022). He holds a PhD in history and sociology of science from the University of Pennsylvania.