The French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission or CEA ( French:

Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives 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 securit ...

), 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. CEA was created in 1945; since then, the successive high-commissioners have been

Frédéric Joliot-Curie Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie (; ; 19 March 1900 – 14 August 1958) was a French physicist and husband of Irène Joliot-Curie, with whom he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of Induced radioactivity. T ...

, Francis Perrin,

Jacques Yvon Ancient and noble French family names, Jacques, Jacq, or James are believed to originate from the Middle Ages in the historic northwest Brittany region in France, and have since spread around the world over the centuries. To date, there are over ...

, Jean Teillac,

Raoul Dautry Raoul Dautry (16 September 1880 – 21 August 1951) was a French engineer, business leader and politician. He was born on 16 September 1880 at Montluçon in the department of Allier; he died on 21 August 1951 at Lourmarin in the department of Vauc ...

, René Pellat, Bernard Bigot, Daniel Verwaerde and François Jacq. It conducts fundamental and applied research into many areas, including the design of

nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat fr ...

s, the manufacturing of

integrated circuits An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit (also referred to as an IC, a chip, or a microchip) is a set of electronic circuits on one small flat piece (or "chip") of semiconductor material, usually silicon. Large numbers of tiny ...

, the use of

radionucleide A radionuclide (radioactive nuclide, radioisotope or radioactive isotope) is a nuclide that has excess nuclear energy, making it unstable. This excess energy can be used in one of three ways: emitted from the nucleus as gamma radiation; transfe ...

s for curing illnesses,

seismology Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other ...

and

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

propagation, the safety of computerized systems, etc. It has one of the top 100 supercomputers in the world, the ''

Tera-100 Tera 100 is a supercomputer built by Bull SA for the French Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique. On May 26, 2010, Tera 100 was turned on. The computer, which is located in Essonne is able to sustain around 1 petaFLOPs maximum performance and a p ...

''. TERA 100, first system designed and built in Europe to reach the petaflops in 2010, was ranked in 5th position in the worldwide TOP 500. CEA is now building TERA-1000 which is a key step in the implementation of their

Exascale Exascale computing refers to computing systems capable of calculating at least "1018 IEEE 754 Double Precision (64-bit) operations (multiplications and/or additions) per second ( exa FLOPS)"; it is a measure of supercomputer performance. Exasca ...

program for the computing needs that CEA would face by 2020. In March 2016,

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was esta ...

published an article describing the "Top 25 Global Innovators – Government" and placed CEA as "number one" amongst "The World's Most Innovative Research Institutions."

Organisation

CEA is divided into four ''directorates'', or divisions:

Energies division (DES)

Technological research division (DRT)

The CEA Tech division is divided between two CEA sites, at Saclay and Grenoble. CEA Tech focuses on technological research and development in the field of energy, IT and health care information. It plays an active role in transferring knowledge and research to industry. The CEA Tech division is further divided into three labs: * The CEA-Leti lab works mainly on micro/nano technologies and specializes in microsystems, biotech, photonics and nanoelectronics. It is located mainly in Grenoble, France. * The CEA-List lab works mainly on systems and software-intensive technology and specializes in embedded systems, sensors and big data, and advanced manufacturing. It is located mainly in Paris-Saclay, France. * The CEA-Liten lab works mainly on cutting edge technologies related to energy and nanomaterials. It specializes in building solar, carbon-free transports, biomass-hydrogen and nano materials-nanotechnologies.

Fundamental research division (DRF)

Military applications division (DAM)

DAM builds the nuclear weapons of the

French military The French Armed Forces (french: Forces armées françaises) encompass the Army, the Navy, the Air and Space Force and the Gendarmerie of the French Republic. The President of France heads the armed forces as Chief of the Armed Forces. France ...

and designs the power plants for the nuclear submarines of the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

. In December 2009, French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared that CEA should change its name from ''Commissariat à l’énergie atomique'' ( en, Commission for Atomic Energy) to ''Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives'' ( en, Commission for Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies); this change took effect on 10 March 2010, when the decision was published in the French Official Journal.

Facilities

Civilian research centres

* CEA Saclay,

Essonne Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.GANIL at Caen -

Calvados Calvados (, , ) is a brandy from Normandy in France, made from apples or pears, or from apples with pears. History In France Apple orchards and brewers are mentioned as far back as the 8th century by Charlemagne. The first known record of Nor ...

* CEA Fontenay-aux-Roses,

Fontenay-aux-Roses Fontenay-aux-Roses () is a commune in the southwestern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. In 1880 a girls school École Normale Supérieure was opened in the town. It was one of the most prestigious of Paris and ...

, Hauts-de-Seine * CEA Grenoble,

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

( Polygone Scientifique), Isère * CEA Cadarache,

Cadarache Cadarache is the largest technological research and development centre for energy in Europe. It includes the CEA research activities and ITER. CEA Cadarache is one of the 10 research centres of the French Commission of Atomic and Alternative En ...

Bouches-du-Rhône Bouches-du-Rhône ( , , ; oc, Bocas de Ròse ; "Mouths of the Rhône") is a department in Southern France. It borders Vaucluse to the north, Gard to the west and Var to the east. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south. Its prefecture and ...

* CEA Valrhô,

Marcoule Marcoule Nuclear Site (french: Site nucléaire de Marcoule) is a nuclear facility in the Chusclan and Codolet communes, near Bagnols-sur-Cèze in the Gard department of France, which is in the tourist, wine and agricultural Côtes-du-Rhône r ...

and

Pierrelatte Pierrelatte (; oc, Pèiralata) is a Communes of France, commune in the Drôme Departments of France, department in southeastern France. Since the 1980s it hosts one of the biggest production plants of the enriched uranium existing in the world, u ...

, Gard

Civilian emergency organizations

Groupe INTRA Groupe INTRA is a French emergency response organization created by the French CEA, and the French nuclear companies Areva and EDF. It maintains a number of emergency intervention teams equipped with high-power radiation-hardened teleoperated mo ...

Research centres for military applications

* CEA DAM Île-de-France, Bruyères-le-Châtel,

Essonne Essonne () is a department of France in the southern Île-de-France region. It is named after the river Essonne. In 2019, it had a population of 1,301,659 across 194 communes.CEA Cesta, Gironde * CEA Gramat *

CEA Valduc {{coord, 47.582160, 4.870442, format=dms, display=title CEA/Valduc or the Valduc Centre for Nuclear Studies is a French nuclear facility ( CEA, direction of military applications) dedicated to the study, manufacturing, maintenance and dismantling ...

, Côte-d'Or * CEA Le Ripault,

Indre-et-Loire Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River. In 2019, it had a population of 610,079.Orano Orano SA is a multinational nuclear fuel cycle company headquartered in Châtillon, Hauts-de-Seine, France. The company is engaged in uranium mining, conversion-enrichment, spent fuel recycling, nuclear logistics, dismantling, and nuclear cy ...

(4.8%) * STMicroelectronics (2.87% indirectly)

CEA in Academics

University of Paris-Saclay

CEA has played an active role in research, development and innovation in the four main areas of low-carbon energies (nuclear and renewable), technologies for information and health technologies, very large research infrastructures (TGIR), and defense and global security. Moreover, two of the ten CEA centers across France have joined with the

University of Paris-Saclay Paris-Saclay University (french: Université Paris-Saclay) is a public research university based in Paris, France. It is one of the 13 prestigious universities that emerged from the division of the University of Paris, also known as the Sorbonne. ...

to develop high quality research and training. The centers which form a part of the University of Paris-Saclay are: * CEA Saclay Center, which conducts research mainly in areas related to climate and environment, materials science, nuclear energy, life sciences and technological research * CEA Fontenay aux Roses Center, which conducts research and innovation in areas related to imaging and biomedical technologies The CEA researchers involved in the University of Paris-Saclay represent over 20% of the university's research potential, particularly in the field of physics and engineering. CEA maintains a strong presence in training to master and engineer level by administrating INSTN, wherein various courses are taught by its researchers. CEA has around 400 researchers who hold an accreditation to supervise research, making it a significant contributor to the research and doctoral programs of the University Paris-Saclay.

INSTN

The INSTN, '' Institut national des sciences et techniques nucléaires'' (National Institute for Nuclear Science and Technology) is a public higher education institution administered by the CEA (French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energies Commission) under the joint authority of the Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research, the

Ministry of the Economy A ministry of economy, ministry of commerce, ministry of economic affairs or department of commerce is a part of the government in most countries that is responsible for matters related to the economy or economic policy. List Examples of such mini ...

, Industry and the Digital Sector and the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Marine Affairs.

Others

* Atos, ENS Paris-Saclay and CEA launched an academic partnership in 2016.

References

Bibliography

Bertrand Goldschmidt Bertrand Goldschmidt (2 November 1912 – 11 June 2002) was a French chemist. He is considered one of the fathers of the French atomic bomb, which was tested for the first time in 1960 in the nuclear test Gerboise Bleue. Biography Bertrand Go ...

, ''Le Complexe atomique : histoire politique de l’énergie nucléaire'', Fayard, 1980 * Gabrielle Hecht, ''Le rayonnement de la France : Énergie nucléaire et identité nationale après la Seconde Guerre mondiale'', La Découverte, 2004 * Marie-José Lovérini, ''L’Atome de la recherche à l’industrie : le Commissariat à l’énergie atomique'', Gallimard, 1996 * Jean-François Picard, Alain Beltran et Martine Bungener, ''Histoire de l’EDF : comment se sont prises les décisions de 1946 à nos jours'', Dunod, 1985 {{DEFAULTSORT:French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission Government agencies of France Governmental nuclear organizations Nuclear energy in France Nuclear research institutes Nuclear technology organizations of France Paris-Saclay University