“Too Strict or Too Lax”?: IAEA and the Evolution of Radiation Protection Standards

• In Event: Framing Scientific Practice

English Abstract

In this paper, we aim to map the historical trends in the evolution of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) role as a radiation safety standardizer. Tracing its creation in post-WWII global politics, we show that making of agency’s safety standards was an ingrained scientific diplomacy endeavour entailing extensive give-and-take and consensus-building efforts by scientific experts. Contrary to professed neutrality and objectivity of scientific and technical experts in resolving high-stake scientific controversies in radiation protection, the development of harmonized safety guidelines was an innately diplomatic endeavour. The role of international experts in producing agency’s basic safety standards portrayed the image of an “omnibus scientist”, who mediated between competing radiation protection agencies through their expertise and varied institutional affiliations. As multiple international bodies competed for dominating the field of radiation protection, the harmonization of standards too became an inherently diplomatic exercise. By tracing the genesis and evolution of IAEA’s radiation safety standards, we argue that the production of radiation safety standards marked a complex activity at the intersection of science and diplomacy. The innateness of diplomacy to standard-making arose as much from the diplomatic imperative of the field as the scientific uncertainties gripping the process of standardization. The coming together of science and diplomacy in IAEA’s radiation protection work presents an important gap in the extant nuclear historiography that we seek to address through this paper. The agency’s diplomatically mediated BSS to radiation safety nevertheless failed to meet popular expectations and to prevent another radiation accident.

Authors

• Kapil Patil

• Maria Rentetzi