The hidden history of African uranium and what it means-for a state, an object, an industry, a workplace-to be 'nuclear.' Uranium from Africa has long been a major source of fuel for nuclear power and atomic weapons, including the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. In 2003, after the infamous 'yellow cake from Niger,' Africa suddenly became notorious as a source of uranium, a component of nuclear weapons. But did that admit Niger, or any of Africa's other uranium-producing countries, to the select society of nuclear states? Does uranium itself count as a nuclear thing? In this book, Gabrielle Hecht lucidly probes the question of what it means for something-a state, an object, an industry, a workplace-to be 'nuclear.' Hecht shows that questions about being nuclear-a state that she calls 'nuclearity'-lie at the heart of today's global nuclear order and the relationships between 'developing nations' (often former colonies) and 'nuclear powers' (often former colonizers). Hecht enters African