Framatome

Areva

Headquarters in Courbevoie, France
Trading name	Euronext: AREVA
Type	Public
Industry	Energy
Founded	2001; 16 years ago (2001)
Headquarters	Courbevoie, Paris, France
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Philippe Knoche (acting CEO)
Products	Nuclear power, Uranium, Electricity, Renewable energy
Owner	CEA (54.37%) State of France (28.83%) Bpifrance (3.32%) EDF (2.24%) KIA (4.82%)
Number of employees	45,340 (2013)
Subsidiaries	Areva NP Areva NC Areva TA Areva Mines Euriware Areva Med
Website	www.areva.com

Areva is a French multinational group specializing in nuclear power and renewable energy headquartered in Paris La Défense. Areva is majority owned by the French state, through French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (54.37%), Banque publique d'investissement (3.32%), and Agence des participations de l'État (28.83%). Moreover, Électricité de France which French government had a majority ownership, owned 2.24%; Kuwait Investment Authority owned 4.82% as the second largest shareholders after the French state.

In 2017 the majority of its reactor business will be sold to Électricité de France.

Areva has its roots in Framatome, which was founded in 1958 by several companies of the French industrial giant The Schneider Group along with Empain, Merlin Gérin, and the American Westinghouse, in order to license Westinghouse's pressurized water reactor (PWR) technology and develop a bid for Chooz A (in France). Called Franco-Américaine de Constructions Atomiques (Framatome), the original company consisted of four engineers, one from each of the parent companies. The original mission of the company was to act as a nuclear engineering firm and to develop a nuclear power plant that was to be identical to Westinghouse's existing product specifications. The first European plant of Westinghouse design was by then already under construction in Italy.

A formal contract was signed in September 1961 for Framatome to deliver a turnkey system, that is, not only the reactor, but an entire, ready-to-use system of piping, cabling, supports, and other auxiliary systems, propelling Framatome from a nuclear engineering firm to an industrial contractor.