31 Dec (NucNet): Bertrand de L’Epinois, senior vice-president for safety standards at Areva, has been appointed president of Brussels-based nuclear industry association Foratom. Mr de L’Epinois, 52, will replace Keith Parker, chief executive of the UK’s Nuclear Industry Association, who has reached the end of his mandate, Foratom said. Mr de L’Epinois graduated from the Ecole des Mines de Paris and began his career in 1989 with the French nuclear safety authority (ASN) as head of the 900-megawatt reactor department. From 1994 to 2002, he worked at the general directorate for energy and raw materials at the French Ministry of Industry before moving to to Thales Underwater Systems in 2002 as competitiveness director and then general sonar study director. In 2007 he was appointed director for the Sesar European air traffic management programme and chairman of the Air Traffic Alliance group. He joined Areva in September 2011.
