Political storms, financial uncertainties, and dreams of ´big science´: the construction of a heavy ions accelerator in Argentina (1974-1986)

HURTADO DE MENDOZA, DIEGO Y VARA, ANA MARÍA

Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences

University of California Press

Lugar: Berkeley; Año: 2006 vol. 36 p. 343 - 364

0890-9997

Experimental nuclear physics in Argentina entered the era of so-called “big science” with a 20 MV tandem-type heavy ion accelerator project. Promoted by the group of nuclear physicists of Argentina´s National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA), the TANDAR (TANDem ARgentino) project was first presented to CNEA’s Navy authorities during a democratic period of complete turmoil and a deep economic crisis, mostly built during the eight years of brutal military dictatorship (1976-1983) and finally inaugurated in the first years of a new democratic government (1986). As a result of  this highly unstable political and social landscape, unforeseen events and vulnerability threatened the TANDAR project during its development. This article narrates how this project was envisioned, planned and carried out, and discusses the distortion of the meaning of “big science” as a preformed historiographical category when it is applied to a “peripheral” context.