Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission

The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, or CEA (French: Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives), is a French public government-funded research organisation in the areas of energy, defense and security, information technologies and health technologies. The CEA maintains a cross-disciplinary culture of engineers and researchers, building on the synergies between fundamental and technological research. CEA is headed by a board headed by the general administrator (currently François Jacq since 20 April 2018), advised by the high-commissioner for atomic energy (currently Patrick Landais). Its yearly budget amounts to €5.1 billion and its permanent staff is slightly over 20,500 persons. It owned Areva. History CEA was created in 1945; since then, the successive high-commissioners have been Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Francis Perrin, Jacques Yvon, Jean Teillac, Raoul Dautry, René Pellat, Bernard Bigot, Catherine Cesarsky, Daniel Verwaerde, and François Jacq. In December 2009, French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared that CEA should change its name from Commissariat à l’énergie atomique to Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives; this change took effect on 10 March 2010, when the decision was published in the French Official Journal.