Christophe PERIOU: e-mail: christophe.periou@cea.fr

Shortly after the French Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) was set up, Fontenay was chosen to accommodate the first CEA centre. Three years later, the first French nuclear reactor, named ZOE, branched out. The centre took on various experimental reactors, radiochemistry workshops and facilities to study thermonuclear fusion. The nuclear power facilities, shut down in 1995, were subject to a vast clean-up and decommissioning programme. For its reconversion, the centre stepped up its research activities in life sciences (HIV, prion, Chikungunya, neurodegenerative diseases), robotics and nuclear safety.

Aside clean-up operations, the laboratory essentially worked on the radiotoxicology of plutonium and transplutonium elements. The laboratory is currently undergoing ISO 17025 certification for anthroporadiometry and part of its radiotoxicological analyses”.