The diffusion of the nuclear industry: preliminary considerations for Latin American programs

The diffusion of nuclear technology means more a development of a large networkof activities (e.g., capital goods, construction, metallurgical and chemical industries) than apath for solving energy problems. Its ties with the arms race cause specific non-proliferationproblems. A close state-capital articulation emerges, which strengthens the subsumption of labourand introduces new processes of social control. Already fulfilled investments give impulseto this tendency. The Tlatelolco regime, banishing nuclear weapons from Latin America, seemsto establish a pre-condition for a regional solution to the problems thus arising. But, besidesthe imperfect adhesion to the Treaty, technical and political reasons obstruct a regional integrationof the nuclear fuel cycle. Among other things, a lack of regional integration in other industriesmakes nuclear expansion more dependent on extra-regional technological ties. JEL Classification: Q42.