UKAEA Chairman, Denis Tunnicliffe, said: "I am delighted to welcome Chris Llewellyn Smith to UKAEA. He brings an outstanding reputation as a world-class scientist, and a wealth of experience in developing and managing major science and engineering programmes in the UK and internationally. I know he will contribute enormous energy and enthusiasm to this post. I look forward to working with him, at an important time in the development of the international fusion research programme."

Chris Llewellyn Smith's scientific achievements and leadership have been recognised by awards and honours in seven countries on three continents. He spent much of his career at Oxford, where he merged five University Departments to form one of the UK's top rated physics departments. He was Director-General of CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, from 1994 to 1998. During his period at CERN, LEP (the Large Electron Positron Collider) was successfully upgraded and broke many performance records and the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) was approved. Sir Chris negotiated substantial contributions to the LHC from a number of non-European countries, including Japan and the USA. He was President and Provost of UCL (University College London) from 1998 to 2002. He has served on numerous advisory committees, including ACOST, the Prime Minister's Advisory Committee on Science and Technology (1989-92), and is currently Chairman of ACME (the Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education), and a member of the US National Academies' Committee on Setting Priorities for National Science Foundation Sponsored Large Research Facility Projects.

He is also an enthusiast for fusion. Commenting on today's announcement, he said: "I am very pleased to have the opportunity to become involved in the fusion programme, and look forward to working with the staff at Culham to build on all they have already achieved. I know that the next few years will be exciting and challenging ones. The UK has a great track record, and a crucial role to play in developing fusion as a source of clean, safe and renewable energy. Culham also has an important role to play in technology transfer and in fostering science and engineering talent, and has links with universities that range from plasma physics to materials science, a subject which will be crucial in developing fusion as a source of power."

Chris Llewellyn Smith succeeds the late Derek Robinson FRS as Director of Culham. At its Culham site in Oxfordshire, UKAEA carries out a national research programme, as well as operating the Joint European Torus (JET) facilities on behalf of its European Partners under the European Fusion Development Agreement (EFDA).

The UK government's recent Energy White Paper, published in February 2003, concluded that: "In the long term, nuclear fusion could provide power generation from an abundant fuel source with zero carbon emissions and without the problems associated with long-term highly radioactive waste. We are a long way from a commercial power plant, but the technical feasibility of fusion generation could be demonstrated within 25 years given adequate resources, possibly leading to full-scale power generation within 30 years."

For more information on the UK fusion program, visit http://www.fusion.org.uk/