Naissance d'un dessein : Frédéric Joliot et le nucléaire français (août 1944-septembre 1945)/Birth of a plan : Frédéric Joliot and French nuclear physics (august 1944-september 1945)

SUMMARY. — From the last days of August 1944, Frédéric Joliot decided that France formed the race for nuclear energy. Collaborating with a small group of key figures, nuclear physicists and high ranking officials, he should enter his project and he got General de Gaulle's support. He tried unsuccessfully to secure a French partnership with the Anglo-Saxon nuclear programs. Confronting their policy of secrecy, when his commitment to the communist party was increasing their mistrust, Joliot became aware of the essential need for France to use its assets to undertake immediately an independant national nuclear program. In September 1945, he, Pierre Auger and Raoul Dautry proposed to General de Gaulle, head of the provisional government, to create the Atomic Energy Commission.