Cores of production: Reactors and radioisotopes in France

Abstract

This paper concerns the technologies used in radioisotope production in the French Atomic Energy Commission (the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique) between 1946 and 1958. Particular attention is given to the various instruments used for the bombardment of isotopes, including accelerators and reactors, and their relationship with the CEA’s radioisotope preparation laboratories. Ultimately, the vast majority of bombardments took place in research reactors. These versatile machines, and the isotopes and other materials that passed through them, act as historical tracers: they shed light on the orientation of the entire atomic system in which radioisotope production is found.