With years of losses and a company breakup behind it, French multinational nuclear power specialist Orano said Friday that it would hire 1,500 workers in all phases of its business.
“In 2018, Orano is to recruit 1,500 people, 800 of whom will be employed in permanent contracts, in 250 skill areas across the entire scope of its activities,” the company said, naming production, engineering, chemistry, transport, management of waste and dismantling.
As part of its recruitment strategy, the company is hosting what they expect to be “a large jobs fair,” which will take place from midday until 10 p.m. on Nov. 6 at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Velodrome.
The jobs fair will involve “an extremely wide variety of areas ranging from radiation protection technicians to safety engineers, from process experts to project managers or from tests managers to dismantling specialists,” the company said.
The new hiring represents better times for Orano. Along with Westinghouse Electric Company, Orano, previously named Areva, was one of the companies hardest hit by the post-Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Generating Station accident that began with the Great East Japan Earthquake of March 2011.
The accident, among the worst in the history of the nuclear power industry, prompted nations, including Germany, to turn their backs on nuclear power either by postponing construction projects or closing down plants that were already up and running. Germany went so far as to exit the nuclear power option entirely by phasing out its existing nuclear power fleet.
The drop in orders for new reactors and other factors contributed to Areva’s demise. After years of multi-billion dollar losses, the company was forced to shed divisions, even selling Areva NP, its reactor business, to French utility EDF.
Areva was majority owned by the French state, as is EDF.
Areva was named Orano in January 2018. Areva NP, now the property of EDF, was renamed Framatome.