How did UK and France acquire nuclear power after WW2?

Answer 1

The UK was part of the original development group in WWII. They had their scientists come home ans start working on their own projects. They wanted an independant deterrent in case they needed to attack Greenland (or something). And power stations were a big pull as well.

France just sat down, thought very hard, had some cheese, and decided they needed the power too. And they went even more nuts into developing power stations, as they needed to keep the lights on to keep making overpriced Bourdeaux.

Both place had access to some of the US led development after the war, but have followed very different paths since then.

Answer 2

Check these sources:

France:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_de_frappe

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_and_France

if you happen to understand french, you will find more details on the french wikipedia:

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_de_dissuasion_fran%C3%A7aise

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essais_nucl%C3%A9aires_fran%C3%A7ais


United Kingdom:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_weapons_of_the_United_Kingdom

sometimes, the answers are already all there ;-)