About CIEMAT
History
Aerial photo of the CIEMAT headquarters in 1957
CIEMAT takes over from the former Junta de Energía Nuclear (JEN), which, since its creation in 1951, led research, the production process and institutional control of nuclear fission energy in Spain.
With a nationally and internationally recognized tarck record, JEN gradually shed some of its regulatory and waste management duties to focus solely on research and technological development. Furthermore, in the 1980s, its activities expanded to include new energy alternatives and the applied study of the environmetal impact of energy. All of this led to a change in the Center´s philosophy and its transformation, with the reation of the current CIEMAT through the Science Law of 1986.
Since then, CIEMAT has envolved into a research center with a specialized field that also covers renewable energy technologies, where it excels in fields such as wind and solar energy, biofuels, nuclear fusion, and energy efficiency. The environment, where it is a leader in characterizating air quality, soil pollution, and its effects on ecosystems; and technological applications in areas such as health and large scientific facilities.
It maintains its research programs in the nuclear field, such as radiation protection, nuclear waste treatment, nuclear safety, and radiology. Its also involved in particle physics research, contributing to CERN, and in medical applications of radiation and biomedicine, focusing on new therapies and early diagnosis of diseases such as cancer.
The three scientific and technical areas (Energy, Envirnoment, and Knowledge and Innovation) into wich the aforementioned areas are grouped complement and benefit each other and share a philosophy: to complete the development cycle of scientific and technical activity by involving industry whenever possible. This has been a constant in CIEMAT´s activity through its history: collaboration in technological developments for major international scientific facilities, pilot plants, and production plants, among others, represent significant injections of knowlege and strategic positioning capacity for national industry.