Being Nuclear

Africans and the Global Uranium Trade

Nonfiction, Science & Nature, Technology, Nuclear Energy, History, Africa
Cover of the book Being Nuclear by Gabrielle Hecht, The MIT Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Gabrielle Hecht ISBN: 9780262300674
Publisher: The MIT Press Publication: March 2, 2012
Imprint: The MIT Press Language: English
Author: Gabrielle Hecht
ISBN: 9780262300674
Publisher: The MIT Press
Publication: March 2, 2012
Imprint: The MIT Press
Language: English

The hidden history of African uranium and what it means—for a state, an object, an industry, a workplace—to be “nuclear.”

Uranium from Africa has long been a major source of fuel for nuclear power and atomic weapons, including the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. In 2003, after the infamous “yellow cake from Niger,” Africa suddenly became notorious as a source of uranium, a component of nuclear weapons. But did that admit Niger, or any of Africa's other uranium-producing countries, to the select society of nuclear states? Does uranium itself count as a nuclear thing? In this book, Gabrielle Hecht lucidly probes the question of what it means for something—a state, an object, an industry, a workplace—to be “nuclear.”

Hecht shows that questions about being nuclear—a state that she calls “nuclearity”—lie at the heart of today's global nuclear order and the relationships between “developing nations” (often former colonies) and “nuclear powers” (often former colonizers). Hecht enters African nuclear worlds, focusing on miners and the occupational hazard of radiation exposure. Could a mine be a nuclear workplace if (as in some South African mines) its radiation levels went undetected and unmeasured? With this book, Hecht is the first to put Africa in the nuclear world, and the nuclear world in Africa. By doing so, she remakes our understanding of the nuclear age.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

The hidden history of African uranium and what it means—for a state, an object, an industry, a workplace—to be “nuclear.”

Uranium from Africa has long been a major source of fuel for nuclear power and atomic weapons, including the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. In 2003, after the infamous “yellow cake from Niger,” Africa suddenly became notorious as a source of uranium, a component of nuclear weapons. But did that admit Niger, or any of Africa's other uranium-producing countries, to the select society of nuclear states? Does uranium itself count as a nuclear thing? In this book, Gabrielle Hecht lucidly probes the question of what it means for something—a state, an object, an industry, a workplace—to be “nuclear.”

Hecht shows that questions about being nuclear—a state that she calls “nuclearity”—lie at the heart of today's global nuclear order and the relationships between “developing nations” (often former colonies) and “nuclear powers” (often former colonizers). Hecht enters African nuclear worlds, focusing on miners and the occupational hazard of radiation exposure. Could a mine be a nuclear workplace if (as in some South African mines) its radiation levels went undetected and unmeasured? With this book, Hecht is the first to put Africa in the nuclear world, and the nuclear world in Africa. By doing so, she remakes our understanding of the nuclear age.

More books from The MIT Press

Cover of the book Revolutionizing Innovation by Gabrielle Hecht
Cover of the book Playing with Sound by Gabrielle Hecht
Cover of the book Programmed Inequality by Gabrielle Hecht
Cover of the book Neural Control of Speech by Gabrielle Hecht
Cover of the book The Long Arm of Moore's Law by Gabrielle Hecht
Cover of the book The Greenest Nation? by Gabrielle Hecht
Cover of the book Venture Labor by Gabrielle Hecht
Cover of the book The Shared World by Gabrielle Hecht
Cover of the book The Commons in History by Gabrielle Hecht
Cover of the book On Hitler's Mein Kampf by Gabrielle Hecht
Cover of the book Energy at the Crossroads by Gabrielle Hecht
Cover of the book The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist by Gabrielle Hecht
Cover of the book Consumer Neuroscience by Gabrielle Hecht
Cover of the book Heteromation, and Other Stories of Computing and Capitalism by Gabrielle Hecht
Cover of the book The Outer Limits of Reason by Gabrielle Hecht
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy