"We seek proposals for a conference on the history of nuclear research in medicine. The conference will be held at the Medical University of Vienna and the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna from the 20th to 21st of March 2023. Deadline for submissions is the 15th of November 2022.

Nuclear Research in Medicine after the Second World War
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Johannes Mattes (Austrian Academy of Sciences), Cécile Philippe (Medical University of Vienna), Maria Rentetzi (Chair of Science Technology and Gender Studies, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg), 1010 Vienna (Austria)             20.03.2023 - 21.03.2023 (Bewerbungsschluss: 15.11.2022)

Nuclear research in medicine relies on a high degree of interaction. While the production of radioisotopes and the development of medical devices are carried out by physicists and engineers, chemists and pharmacists take over the syntheses of radiopharmaceuticals, while physicians focus on their application. In the absence of handbooks, industrially available devices, and radioisotopes, early specialists were also dependent on multilateral exchanges. These were fostered by post-war agreements for the peaceful use of atomic energy and international organizations such as the IAEA and WHO. Thus, the formation of nuclear medicine as discipline was the result of a global balancing and standardization process during the Cold War era. Its origins are traced in the first broad clinical applications of radioisotopes primarily in the United States and the United Kingdom just before the Second World War and continued with the worldwide dissemination of relevant knowledge and techniques that were mainly triggered by the United Nations international organizations. Nevertheless, in many countries, nuclear medicine did not get recognized as a medical specialty with separate residency training until the 1990s.
This symposium focuses on the emergence of nuclear medicine as an outcome of scientific collaboration and competition, boundary and interdisciplinary work, and encounters between various (inter)national stakeholders, as well as political, diplomatic, and scientific institutions. We welcome contributions that address the scientific, political, diplomatic, and social dimensions of these interactions, the knowledge, resources, and policies involved.

Potential topics include:
- Transnational cooperation and competition among researchers, clinical practitioners, institutions and disciplines
- Sharing of nuclear medicine knowledge, methods, materials, and spaces within Europe and around the globe
- Development of standards, rules, manuals, and measuring/imaging devices
- Political, social, and gendered aspects of scientific interaction, licensing, and regulatory governance of the field
- Safety, security, and disposal of radioactive waste produced by nuclear medical practices
- Hierarchies and networks of exchange

To apply, please send an abstract (no longer than 250 words), a brief bio, and contact information (all in one word file) to Johannes Mattes, johannes.mattes@oeaw.ac.at, by 15 November 2022. We will let you know about our decision by mid-December. Part of our plan is to publish a collective peer-reviewed special journal issue based on the final submissions of the participants."

Das für den weiteren Betrieb vorgesehene AKW (das zu den drei verbliebenen Atomkraftwerken Deutschlands gehört) muss aufgrund einer Ventilleckage stillgelegt werden: "Eine Beeinträchtigung der Sicherheit bestehe nicht. Jedoch müsse der Meiler repariert werden, um über das Jahresende hinaus für einen Leistungsbetrieb zur Verfügung zu stehen. Das Ministerium kündigte an, aufgrund der neuen Sachlage zu prüfen, ob Isar 2 weiterhin bis Mitte April als Notreserve für die deutsche Energieproduktion genutzt werden könne. Die Reparatur sei nach Auskunft des Betreibers nicht notwendig, sollte das AKW wie durch den beschlossenen Atomausstieg zum Jahresende den Leistungsbetrieb beenden." (Handelsblatt, 19. September 2022)

Link: https://www.handelsblatt.com/dpa/atomkraftwerk-isar-2-muesste-fuer-laengere-laufzeit-repariert-werden/28690944.html

"Presenting his latest documentary, “Nuclear,” at the Venice Film Festival, director Oliver Stone reflected on the climate crisis with an uncommon tone – optimism. '[We need to] get away from that mentality of fear,” Stone said from a press conference just before his film’s world premiere. “Like everyone else, I saw ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ in 2006, and it was scary. I kept reading the news, and it kept getting worse.´ (...)

"The filmmaker looked to address the issue by focusing on action, and by offering scalable and effective solutions. He found them in nuclear energy, and in a 2019 book, “A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow,” written by American University professor Joshua S. Goldstein." (Variety, 9. September 2022)

Links: https://variety.com/2022/film/news/oliver-stone-nuclear-venice-1235366150/ (September 2022)

https://www.wienerzeitung.at/nachrichten/kultur/film/2161190-Oliver-Stone-Ein-Plaedoyer-fuer-die-Atomkraft.html  = "Im Film behauptet der amerikanische Regisseur, dass die Welt die schreckliche Erinnerung an die Bomben von Hiroshima und Nagasaki oder die Explosion Tschernobyls bewahrt. Stone ist hingegen überzeugt, dass Wissenschaft heute so weit ist, um Atomkraft sauber, ziemlich sicher und effizient zu nutzen." (Wiener Zeitung, 9. September 2022)

"Nordkorea hat ein neues Atomwaffengesetz verabschiedet, das das Recht auf einen nuklearen Erstschlag zur Selbstverteidigung vorsieht.

Auch der Status als Atommacht wird darin als unumkehrbar verankert, wie die staatlichen Medien des Landes am Freitag meldeten. „Hiermit wird eine unwiderrufliche Linie gezogen, damit es keinerlei Verhandlungen über unsere Atomwaffen geben kann", erklärte Machthaber Kim Jong Un. Er werde die Waffen niemals aufgeben, selbst wenn sein Land 100 Jahre lang Sanktionen ausgesetzt sei." (Stuttgarter Zeitung)

Links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHOb7GxWszI (Stuttgarter Zeitung, 9. September 2022)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJHrjcENYTw (北朝鮮 核使用の条件定めた法令採択 金氏「絶対に核を放棄できない」/ Beschluss zu Atomwaffen im nordkoreanischen Parlament) 「テレ東BIZ」 （2022年9月9日）=「絶対に核を放棄できない」と発言しました。北朝鮮の朝鮮中央通信によりますと、北朝鮮の国会に当たる最高人民会議は８日、核兵器の使用条件などを定めた法令を採択しました。金正恩朝鮮労働党総書記は演説で、「法制化によって、核保有国としての地位が不可逆的になった」と述べたうえで、「絶対に核を放棄できない」として、非核化の交渉を拒否する姿勢を強調しました。

“Nehithawak [Cree territory] stand in the way of a colonial agenda that requires access to land for its survival. In the context of northern Saskatchewan, the Canadian state and the Province of Saskatchewan require access to uranium ore underneath traditional Nehithaw [Cree territory] and Denesuline [Territory of the Dene] territories for the development and maintenance of the nuclear industry one of the key components of the capitalist framework in Canada. This is the latest form that colonialism has taken in northern Saskatchewan and is one of many in a long history of threats which our people have had to respond to and protect ourselves from. (...) Many of the world’s largest and most profitable uranium mining and milling operations are located on or just north of our traditional territory, as well as the territory of our northern neighbours, the Denesuline.” (Kirstin Scansen, 2015)

Das Europäische Parlament selbst forderte 2018 in einer Resolution die Mitgliedsstaaten auf "alle Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, die erforderlich sind, damit die Rechte der indigenen Völker, unter anderem auf ihr Land, ihre Gebiete und ihre Ressourcen, umfassen anerkannt, geschützt und gefördert werden; begrüßt die Bemühungen der Zivilgesellschaft und der nichtstaatlichen Organisationen zur Bewältigung dieser Probleme."

Links: https://uranium-network.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/PM-ALLIANCE-Taxonomie-Statement-BACKGROUND.pdf (Uranium-NetworkOrg, Freiburg, September 2021)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB5kQ9sbwfs (Committee for Future Generations' Kirstin Scansen speaks at the December 9-11 2013 meeting of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission meeting Holiday In Yorkdale)
https://www.gfbv.de/de/news/urankreislauf-und-indigene-voelker-1154/  (15. Dezember 2007)
https://taz.de/Lasst-das-Uran-in-der-Erde/!1846530/  (taz, 23. Juni 1988)