Paris - French nuclear giant Areva plans to cut jobs and suspend projects worth billions of dollars across the globe, as it battles the effects of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan and losses through mining operations in Africa. The state-controlled company, which employs 48,000 people worldwide, posted massive financial losses in 2011. It now intends cutting up to 1,500 positions in Germany following Berlin's decision to decommission eight nuclear reactors and to phase out the remaining nine reactors by 2022. The decision by Areva's new chief executive Luc Oursel to implement such a deep restructuring of the company, just as the nuclear industry is experiencing one of its most severe crises ever, has enraged trade unions.
Along with the job losses in Germany, Oursel announced the suspension of a planned nuclear enrichment plant project in Idaho in the United States, as well as several projects in Africa. Areva has also suspended plans to expand capacity at its reprocessing plant in La Hague, northern France. The world's biggest manufacturer of nuclear reactors, which is also involved in uranium mining, sees the restructuring as absolutely necessary, if it is to return to profit. The company has lost contracts worth hundreds of millions of euros in countries such as Japan and Germany since last March's Fukushima disaster, the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl in 1986. Read full at: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1680607.php/Fuku...
Along with the job losses in Germany, Oursel announced the suspension of a planned nuclear enrichment plant project in Idaho in the United States, as well as several projects in Africa. Areva has also suspended plans to expand capacity at its reprocessing plant in La Hague, northern France. The world's biggest manufacturer of nuclear reactors, which is also involved in uranium mining, sees the restructuring as absolutely necessary, if it is to return to profit. The company has lost contracts worth hundreds of millions of euros in countries such as Japan and Germany since last March's Fukushima disaster, the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl in 1986. Read full at: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/business/news/article_1680607.php/Fuku...
