| Agency Name: | French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission |
| Nativename: | Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives |
| Formed: | by Charles de Gaulle |
| Preceding1: | Commissariat à l'énergie atomique |
| Headquarters: | Paris and Gif-sur-Yvette, France |
| Employees: | 21,000+ (2022)[1] |
| Budget: | (2022) |
| Chief1 Position: | General administrator |
| Chief2 Position: | High Commissioner for Atomic Energy |
| Website: | (en) |
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 since 20 April 2018[2]), advised by the high-commissioner for atomic energy (currently). Its yearly budget amounts to €5.8 billion and its permanent staff is slightly over 21,000 persons.[1]
CEA was created in 1945; since then, the successive high-commissioners have been Frédéric Joliot-Curie, Francis Perrin,,, Raoul Dautry,, Bernard Bigot, Catherine Cesarsky,[3], and .
In December 2009, French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared[4] that CEA should change its name from Commissariat à l’énergie atomique (English: Commission for Atomic Energy) to Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (English: 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.
It conducts fundamental and applied research into many areas, including the design of nuclear reactors, the manufacturing of integrated circuits, the use of radionucleides for curing illnesses, seismology and tsunami propagation, the safety of computerized systems, etc.
It has one of the top 100 supercomputers in the world, the Tera-100.[5] 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.[6] [7] CEA is now building TERA-1000 which is a key step in the implementation of their Exascale program for the computing needs that CEA would face by 2020.
In March 2016, Reuters published an article describing the "Top 25 Global Innovators – Government"[8] and placed CEA as "number one" amongst "The World's Most Innovative Research Institutions."[8]
CEA is divided into four directorates, or divisions:
The (DES) comprises four institutes:[9]
The (DRT), known also as CEA Tech[10] 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 research institutes:
The current director of DRT since january 2023 is Julie Galland.
The (DRF) consists of 9 institutes:[14]
The current DRF director since 2 november 2019 is Elsa Cortijo.
The (DAM) builds the nuclear weapons of the French military and designs the power plants for the nuclear submarines of the French Navy.
The sites of the DAM include:[15] [16]
CEA has spun off multiple companies, some being partial subsidiaries or where CEA has minority interest. Some such companies are listed below:
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[18] to develop high quality research and training. The centers which form a part of the University of Paris-Saclay include:
(Since 2017, these two centers merged into CEA Paris-Saclay center, and are now referred to as sites in that center.)
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 administering 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.
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, Industry and the Digital Sector and the Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Marine Affairs.