In this dissertation, I examine how the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) used its technical assistance programme to shape the emergence of radiation protection in postwar Greece and, in turn, how Greek actors engaged with, negotiated, and sometimes subtly reworked this agenda. Moving beyond narratives of linear “technology transfer,” I argue that the power of technical assistance lay in the mobility it enabled—of experts, fellows, documents, and images—which created dense transnational networks of dependence, aspiration, and negotiation. Focusing on the period from the mid-1950s to the late 1970s, I situate Greece’s nuclear trajectory within the intertwined contexts of Cold War geopolitics, decolonization, and an internally fragile, security-driven state. I show how the IAEA, building on but also gradually displacing earlier U.S. and UNESCO initiatives, became Greece’s primary nuclear partner, using expert missions, fellowships, and even mobile radioisotope laboratories to embed its radiological protection standards in Greek institutions. At the same time, I trace how Greek scientists, officials, and political actors leveraged this relationship to secure resources, prestige, and a place within what they perceived as the “core” of scientific modernity. Methodologically, I combine extensive research in newly opened IAEA archives and other international and Greek repositories with a substantial body of oral history interviews. By treating radiation protection as a technopolitical field where scientific practice, diplomacy, and domestic power structures intersect, this research contributes to nuclear history, the history of radiation protection, and critical work on science diplomacy and development.
Loukas Freris (Thu,) studied this question.