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

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

KEYWORDS:
Treaty of Tlatelolco; nuclear energy; electricity