Areva SA

Areva S.A. is a French state-controlled nuclear group that operated between 2001 and 2018 as a vertically integrated player across almost the entire nuclear fuel cycle, and now mainly manages residual projects and liabilities following a major restructuring. Created through the merger of Framatome, Cogema and Technicatome, it was headquartered in Courbevoie, Paris, and served customers worldwide. At its peak in 2013 it employed more than 45,000 people and supplied nuclear reactors, fuel, uranium and related services such as enrichment, reprocessing, transport and waste management. Its mining, front-end, reactors and services, and back-end business groups explored and produced uranium on five continents, converted and enriched uranium, fabricated fuel, designed and built pressurised and boiling water reactors, and provided recycling, storage, transport and decommissioning solutions. Areva also developed substantial renewable energy activities, including offshore wind through Multibrid/Areva Wind and later the Adwen joint venture with Gamesa, biomass and biogas plants in markets such as Brazil, Chile, India and Thailand, concentrated solar power via Areva Solar, and hydrogen-based energy storage through Areva H2Gen and projects like the MYRTE platform. In India it combined nuclear development, including a memorandum of understanding to supply EPR reactors at Jaitapur and a uranium supply contract, with biomass and solar projects. After heavy losses exacerbated by post-Fukushima market conditions, project delays and asset write-downs, the group was restructured: the reactors business Areva NP was sold to EDF and became Framatome, the nuclear fuel cycle operations were transferred into New Areva (now Orano), and Areva TA was sold to the French state. Today Areva S.A. focuses largely on completing and settling the Olkiluoto 3 EPR project in Finland and retains a significant minority stake in Orano.