 France has a long relationship with nuclear power, starting with Henri Becquerel's discovery of natural radioactivity in the 1890s and continued by famous nuclear scientists such as Pierre and Marie Curie.Before World War II, France had been mainly involved in nuclear research through the work of the Joliot-Curies.In 1945 the Provisional Government of the French Republic (GPRF) created the "Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique" (CEA) governmental agency, and Nobel prize winner Frédéric Joliot-Curie, member of the French Communist Party (PCF) since 1942, was appointed high-commissioner.