The Federal Council appoints a new head of the ENSI Board and elects two additional members to the Board

At its meeting on 28 October 2020, the Federal Council appointed Andreas Abegg as the new Chair and Cornelia Spitzer as the new Vice Chair of the ENSI Board. Both will take up their positions on 1 November 2020. Rafael Macián-Juan will replace Jacques Giovanola, an ENSI Board member for many years, as of 1 January 2021.

The Federal Council has used the appointments to ensure that the ENSI Board will fulfil its tasks as ENSI’s strategic and internal supervisory body with expert members. It has appointed Andreas Abegg, a full member of the ENSI Board since 2019, as the new Chair of the ENSI Board effective 1 November 2020. He is professor of public commercial law at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) in Winterthur, honorary professor of public law at the University of Lucerne and a practising lawyer. Andreas Abegg’s work and research focuses on energy law and law relating to public enterprises.

Mathematics graduate Cornelia Spitzer will assume the position of Vice Chair from 1 November 2020. Until her retirement at the end of September 2020, Cornelia Spitzer held the post of Technical Project Manager, Division of Nuclear Installation Safety in the Department of Nuclear Safety and Security of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), after previously heading the Safety Assessment Section. She has many years of experience in the field of safety assessment of nuclear installations in official regulatory processes.

Tanja Manser, the incumbent Vice Chair and interim Chair, will continue to serve on the ENSI Board as a full member.

In addition, the Federal Council has appointed Rafael Macián-Juan as a full member of the ENSI Board from 1 January 2021. Rafael Macián-Juan worked for several years at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), where he carried out research and development work in the field of thermohydraulics of reactors and prepared safety assessments for Swiss nuclear power plants. Since 2007, he has held the Chair of Nuclear Engineering in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Munich. Rafael Macián-Juan replaces Jacques Giovanola, who has been a member of the ENSI Board since 2012, representing the areas of technical supervision and research in particular.

The ENSI Board would like to take this opportunity to thank Tanja Manser for temporarily chairing the Board and Jacques Giovanola for his many years of valuable work as a board member.

ENSI, the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate is the national regulatory body with responsibility for the nuclear safety and security of Swiss nuclear facilities. The ENSI Board is the strategic and internal regulatory body of ENSI. Pursuant to Art. 6 of the Federal Act of 22 June 2007 on the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSIG), the Federal Council elects the members of the ENSI Board for a term of four years.