Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade

Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade

The hidden history of African uranium and what it meansâ€•for a state, an object, an industry, a workplaceâ€•to be â€œnuclear.â€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 â€œyellow cake from Niger,â€ 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 somethingâ€•a state, an object, an industry, a workplaceâ€•to be â€œnuclear.â€ Hecht shows that questions about being nuclearâ€•a state that she calls â€œnuclearityâ€â€•lie at the heart of today's global nuclear order and the relationships between â€œdeveloping nationsâ€ (often former colonies) and â€œnuclear powersâ€ (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.
Country USA
Brand MIT Press
Manufacturer MIT Press
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber 53 b&w photos
Color Black
ReleaseDate 2014-08-29
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780262526869

Country	USA
Brand	MIT Press
Manufacturer	MIT Press
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	53 b&w photos
Color	Black
ReleaseDate	2014-08-29
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780262526869

Being Nuclear: Africans and the Global Uranium Trade

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