ABSTRACT
The years from the establishment of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) in March 1974 through the revolutionary months of late 1978 mark the golden age of Iran’s nuclear program. This was an era when the Monarchical state spent much socio-political capital to generate traction and enthusiasm for nuclear energy and its multifarious applications within the political elite and the general populace. It was also the era when the nuclear program picked up operational and, subsequently, forward-looking visionary energy. Windfall petrodollars thanks to the 1973 oil bonanza coupled with atmospherically amicable ties to the Western bloc created unprecedentedly ideal material and normative leverage for the Shah to push through a high-profi le nuclear enterprise.
