Areva Scrambles To Hire Workers As Demand For Nuclear Power Takes Off

The bulk of the new workers will join Areva’s workforce of 75,000 in France, the United States, China, and the Middle East

- Edited by April Murelio -

According to a report in The Times Online, Inside a cavernous factory in the French steel town of Chalon-sur-Saône, technicians are welding a giant drum that will one day form the heart of a Chinese nuclear reactor. Once finished, the 500-tonne steam-generating unit being built by Areva, the French nuclear energy group, will be loaded on to a barge and floated down the river to Marseilles for export.

A resurgence of global interest in nuclear power is driving a boom in orders from this area, the hub of the French nuclear industry. To cope with demand, Areva is hiring up to 1,000 people per month to prepare for a surge in orders from all over the world.

Luc Oursel, chief executive of Areva Nuclear Plants, the core nuclear reactor manufacturing division, contends: “We are convinced about the nuclear renaissance.”

Despite the recession, Areva, which is 91 per cent-owned by the French State, has more than doubled in size in three years as France seeks to cement its position as a supplier of nuclear equipment and capitalise on a renewed focus of nuclear technology as countries try to reduce dependency on fossil fuels.

Over the next ten years, the world is expected to build 180 nuclear power plants, up from only 39 since 1999, and Areva, the world's largest builder of reactors, has ambitions to build one third of them.

Areva intends to recruit 10,000-12,000 staff globally this year and a similar number in 2010. “Financial crisis or not, this action plan is going ahead,” Mr Oursel adds. “We see more and more countries coming to us.”

The bulk of the new workers will join Areva’s workforce of 75,000 in France, China, the Middle East, and the United States.

The build-up represents an evolution in the fortunes of the French nuclear industry. Eight years ago, Areva’s Saint-Marcel factory in Chalon faced closure, sustained only by a trickle of orders for replacement parts for France’s domestic fleet of 58 reactors, which generate 80 percent of France’s electricity. Currently, Areva has 23 provisional orders for reactors.

Hervé Hottelart, the plant’s director, said that the Chalon workforce had swelled from 500 in 2004 to 1,140 now. Areva plans to grow it further to 1,300. “We used to be just a supplier to the French nuclear industry, but now we are exporting globally,” he remarked, adding that the plant was producing components for reactors in Finland, China and France.

The heavy equipment for four reactors that EDF planned to build in Britain at Hinkley Point, in Somerset, and Sizewell, in Suffolk, would be built at Saint-Marcel, he added.

Yet Areva’s rapid expansion plans will not be inexpensive. Mr Oursel said that Areva planned to invest €2.3 billion (£2.2 billion) this year on factories, uranium mines, fuel-processing plants and research and development, a figure that would increase to €2.6 billion for each of the following three years.