WANO Chairman and President elected

Laurent Stricker of France will serve a second term as Chairman of the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) while He Yu of China has been elected interim President of the international safety organisation.

Meeting in Murmansk, Russia, WANO’s Governing Board also welcomed several new Governors as part of landmark changes to its structure and governance announced earlier this year.

Mr. Stricker, a Senior Advisor to the Chairman and CEO of Electricité de France, was unanimously re-elected to continue as WANO Chairman until January of 2013. Mr. He, who is Chairman of the Board of the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Holding Co., Ltd. (CGNPC), also received unanimous support to succeed former CGNPC Chairman Qian Zhimin as WANO President on an interim basis. Mr. He will serve until October of 2011, when a successor will be elected during WANO’s 11^th Biennial General Meeting in Shenzhen, China

‘As the new WANO President, I will make unsparing efforts to fulfil the WANO mission and fully support WANO activities,’ said Mr. He, who promised to strengthen communications and cooperation among all WANO members to promote safety and reliability at nuclear power plants around the world.

Also elected to the WANO Governing Board were:

• James O. Ellis, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations (INPO), which represents about 80 per cent of the reactor units affiliated with WANO’s Atlanta Centre.
• Sergey A. Obozov, Director General of Concern Rosenergoatom, which represents nearly half of the units affiliated with the Moscow Centre.
• Henri Proglio, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Electricité de France, which operates about 35 per cent of the units affiliated with the Paris Centre.
• Masataka Shimizu, President of Tokyo Electric Power Company and incoming Chairman of the Federation of Electric Power Companies. Mr. Shimizu represents the Japanese Nuclear Operators, whose members operate nearly 40 per cent of the units affiliated with the Tokyo Centre.

In addition, the Governing Board also confirmed that Bernd Güthoff, Managing Director of E.ON Kernkraft GmbH of Germany, will succeed Dr. Andrew Spurr of British Energy as one of the Governors representing the Paris Centre.