The Niels Bohr Archive's                      Friday 14 November 1997 at 14:15
History of Science Seminar                    Auditorium A, Niels Bohr Institute
                                              Blegdamsvej 17, Copenhagen

                                 Karl Grandin
                          Uppsala University, Sweden

                            Neutral Nuclear Policy?
                Torsten Gustafson, Tage Erlander and Niels Bohr

The talk deals with nuclear policy in 1945-1953, especially as it relates to the
Swedish nuclear energy program.  It gives special attention to  the relationship
between  the Swedish  theoretical physicist  Torsten Gustafson  and the  Swedish
Prime  Minister Tage  Erlander.   The main emphasis will be on  how the  Swedish
attitude was perceived within the framework of international nuclear policy.
      One main topic concerns  how, for several years, uranium sources and their
control  determined much of the overall  foreign and security policy.   In  this
period,  the large Swedish uranium sources  and Sweden's neutrality policy  thus
constituted  the most  important background  for Sweden's role in  international
nuclear policy.
      Gustafson,  an old friend of Erlander, took active part in developing  the
Swedish  nuclar energy program, for  example by using  his scientific  contacts,
especially  Niels  Bohr.    The  second  part  of  the  talk  will  examine  the
interactions  between  Bohr,  Gustafson and Erlander,  the  latter always  being
anxious to have Bohr's opinions on nuclear policy.