Health Physics (보건 물리학) in South Korea: Building a Research Community in a Post-Colonial Society, 1959–early 1970s

This paper traces the diverse contexts of radiation protection from liberation in post-1945 South Korea to its professionalization by the early 1970s, using the emerging field of health physics (보건 물리학) as the focus. The Korean nuclear center, AERI (Atomic Energy Research Institute/한국 원자력 연구소, 1959), started two affiliates, RRIA (Radiation Research Institute for Agriculture/방사선 농업연구소, 1966) and RRIM (Radiation Research Institute for Medicine/방사선 의학연구소, 1963) in the early 1960s. In particular, RRIM emphasized the use of radiation within cancer research, especially the use of cobalt in treating patients. In this context, health physics initially took the form of “radiation medicine.” With the two institutes returning to AERI’s fold in 1973, health physics took another turn: the second major subfield, following “radiation medicine,” invoked a broader conception of “radiation protection,” which now referred to a cluster of related interests, including the environment and the effects of industrialization. Rather than a simple transfer of American and international models after 1953, Korean health physics reflects its origins in a post-colonial research setting, one more diverse than its “official” institutional context at AERI.