Following the appointment of Sir Anthony Cleaver as Chairman of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority, reported in the last Industry Link, Ian Roxburgh has been appointed as the Chief Executive. Dr Roxburgh joined the NDA after leading the Coal Authority as CEO.  He brings to the NDA a wealth of knowledge and experience of the energy sector and safely dealing with its historic legacy. He has written a text book entitled "Geology of High Level Nuclear Waste Disposal" and he has also contributed to the Hydro-geological entries for the New Oxford University Press "Concise Oxford Dictionary of Earth Sciences".

Following the Chief Executive's appointment the other NDA board members were announced on 13 October, NIA Chairman Tony Cooper, was appointed as a non-executive board member and as a result he will be stepping down from the NIA board at the AGM in December. The other NDA non executive directors appointed by the DTI are:

Nick Baldwin, former Chief Executive of Powergen PLC. He is also a member of the DTI Energy Group Advisory Board.

Lyndon Stanton a former President & Chief Executive of Arco Chemical Europe and a current Non Executive Director of the Environment Agency (DEFRA).

David Illingworth former President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Primrose Stark former Human Resources Director at First Engineering Ltd.

Roger Scott former Director and Professor of Nuclear Science at the Scottish Universities Research and Reactor Centre. His academic research has covered all aspects of the decommissioning of a research reactor.

New Energy Minister Mike O'Brien MP

Change is also afoot in the EU where the European Commissioner-designate for Energy, L�szl� Kov�cs of Hungary has faced questions during his hearing before the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy chaired by UK Conservative MEP Giles Chichester.

While perhaps not as enthusiastic as his predecessor Loyola de Palacio, Mr Kov�cs did say that nuclear power was an inevitable part of Europe's current energy production and that he believed in keeping the nuclear option open. He added that it needed to operate to the highest safety standards, and the issue of radioactive waste must be resolved.

In his opening statement, the Commissioner-designate outlined his priorities for energy policy. He stressed that EU policy needs to provide a stable framework for secure energy supply, while ensuring full protection for the environment. To guarantee competitiveness, his first task was "to ensure the proper implementation of the second liberalisation package by all Member States". This latter goal required in particular more investment in interconnector capacity.

However the Committee were unimpressed with Mr Kov�cs and have requested that his portfolio be changed. At present it is unclear as to whether new Commission President Jos� Manuel Barroso will agree to this or not.