Bill Coley has not had a very restful summer. The chief executive of British Energy has spent much of the past three months locked in discussions about a possible £12 billion takeover with the group's advisers and Sir Adrian Montague, the chairman.

The softly spoken American has also been contending with a series of maintenance problems at the company's ageing fleet of eight nuclear power stations, which still generate 15 per cent of UK electricity.

Things are unlikely to calm down much for Mr Coley this week. On Wednesday, as he unveils details of British Energy's first-quarter results, he will face a barrage of fresh questions about the future direction of the company, which is set to play a key role in the construction of a new generation of reactors in the UK because it owns most of the best sites.

It emerged yesterday that Centrica, the owner of British Gas, was considering a £4 billion cash sweetener to persuade the Government to back its own proposals for a merger with the group. The Government has thrown its weight behind a proposed takeover by EDF, the French nuclear power group.

Mr Coley, who will no doubt offer a poker-faced reply in his Southern drawl, could be forgiven for wishing he were somewhere else. Five years ago he was looking forward to retirement when headhunters lured him back into the world of business with the offer of a non-executive role in British Energy.

Little did he know that two years later he would be asked to become chief executive and relocate to London. Since his appointment in 2005, he has helped to vanquish some of the grim recent memories of British Energy - in particular the day the Government was forced to spend £410 million to bring the company back from the brink of collapse in 2002. He has also helped to steer the group towards a bright new future at the heart of Britain's nuclear renaissance.

Mr Coley, 65, certainly has no lack of industry experience. After dreaming of being an astronaut, he has spent his career in electricity and nuclear power. He joined Duke Power, the North Carolina utility, in 1966 as a junior engineer after completing an electrical engineering degree, and helped to launch its nuclear programme.

Having been persuaded to leave the Pinehurst golf course near his North Carolina home in 2003, Mr Coley famously said that he realised that British Energy would not be a routine job. How right he was.