Orano

Orano is a French multinational company specialising in nuclear fuel cycle services, including uranium mining, conversion, enrichment and recycling. It is headquartered in Châtillon, near Paris, and operates across France, Africa, Canada and other regions. The company was formed in 2018 as the successor to Areva's mining and fuel-cycle activities, following the restructuring of the former state-controlled nuclear group. Orano is majority owned by the French state, with additional shareholders including Japanese and French industrial partners. Its core business spans uranium exploration and extraction, conversion and enrichment services, spent fuel recycling and dismantling of nuclear facilities. The company holds interests in uranium projects and mines in Niger, Kazakhstan and Canada, among other jurisdictions. In Canada it participates in joint ventures in the Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan, a leading global uranium-producing region. Orano supplies nuclear utilities worldwide with fuel-cycle products supporting electricity generation. It employs thousands of staff globally and is one of the few vertically integrated nuclear fuel cycle companies. The group traces its lineage to Areva, whose uranium mining and enrichment divisions were carved out amid financial and strategic difficulties in the mid-2010s.