Page 91 - Neutrons for Sciences and Society

be known by the name “Institut Max von Laue - Paul Langevin”. It clearly states that the activities are for peaceful purposes, and that the Director must be a renowned scientist proposed by the German partner. This agreement was signed on 19 January 1967 in Grenoble by the two ministers responsible, namely Monsieur Stoltenberg and Monsieur Peyrefitte.
Some comments on the text may be helpful. The first is that the French party is an association of the CEA and the CNRS. I think the inclusion of the latter is due to Néel’s initiative, because it
is consistent with his policy of always associating the two in Grenoble. In his memoirs Néel writes of contacts (unspecified) he had in 1966 with the leadership of the CNRS. The Director- General Professor Jacquinot was certainly in favour. If certain other officials (I am thinking of Hubert Curien, then Director
of Physics) agreed too, the body of scientists was obliged to
join the enterprise. Antagonism from some of the physicists,
who were somewhat shocked by the cost of the ILL, quickly
led to the renaming of the project “Réacteur à Haut Flux” to “Réacteur superflu” (superfluous reactor). The concerns of
part of the scientific community were included in a very biased article published by the weekly L’Express, 26 September 1971, entitled “An experiment for nothing”. This hostility was quickly dispelled when the scientists realised that the new facility would be different from the reactors at Saclay and not just serve a limited group of specialists but could be useful for all of them. The balance sheet for the CNRS and the ILL seems positive overall. Most of the French users come from laboratories of the CNRS.
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Chapter 4 - The negotiations