‘Atom-Minded Australia’: Britain’s Atomic Empire and the Postwar Geopolitics of Australian Uranium, 1944–1954

This article considers how seemingly peripheral actors’ policies, actions and imperial ambitions shaped global uranium supply in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. It does so with a particular focus on Australia: a key supplier of uranium to both Britain and the United States from the 1940s onward. Australia’s contributions to both states’ weapons programmes demonstrate that uranium itself was a considerable source of geopolitical bargaining power in the postwar period for those countries formerly (or in many cases, still) subject to the imperial interests and influence of major powers. Notably, the United Kingdom’s and United States’s efforts to secure Australian uranium for weapons and nuclear power had to contend (and often clashed) with Australia’s own atomic ambitions. So, while UK and US authorities endeavoured to strike deals with the Australians in the 1940s and 50s, various interest groups within the state sought to influence the mining and distribution of this important imperial mineral, contributing – in their own ways – to global uranium supply during a period of rapid nuclear development. Dealing with the ambitions of Australia’s scientific community, its individual states, and the Commonwealth Government in turn, this article makes the case for understanding uranium as a vital imperial mineral, not only because it was sought after through imperial networks and webs, but because it proved simultaneously capable of transforming the fortunes of waning powers, bolstering the influence of emergent ones, and fuelling the postwar ambitions of those formerly subject to imperial rule.