The Concept of the EURATOM Regional Nuclear Safeguards System

As a result of the wide-ranging political factors outlined in previous chapters Louis Armand’s hope for a grand nuclear organisation that would be the catalyst for the regeneration of Western Europe never materialised. EURATOM’S ‘embryonic’ phase had ended with a Treaty establishing a nuclear organisation in Western Europe.1 But this organisation was not vested with the kind of remit envisaged by Armand and his followers. When EURATOM eventually began operations in 1958, it therefore did so on foundations that were politically, far from solid.