On the search for uranium

The research reactor JEEP, which was completed in 1951 at Institutt for atomenergi (IFA), Kjeller, Norway, became the first reactor in the world to be built outside the big-power states. Due to Norwegian production of heavy water, the reactor was constructed as a heavy water reactor using natural uranium as fuel. A graphite reflector surrounded the reactor tank. Both uranium and graphite had to be purchased abroad. Because of the Anglo-American monopoly of all sizable uranium sources in the Western part of the world, no uranium for the reactor was available on the free market. The present study analyses Norway's and IFA's foreign relations at the time of the reactor project, and focuses in particular on the choice of the future partner that IFA had to make in order to solve its uranium problem. Political considerations were among the factors behind the decision in 1951 to establish a joint Dutch-Norwegian atomic energy research institute