Orano
Orano is a FRA company active in the nuclear fuel chain as miner, converter, enricher, fabricator, reprocessing.
The restructured fuel-cycle business of Areva, majority owned by the French state. Orano is the only company outside Rosatom present at every stage from mine to reprocessing: uranium mines in Niger, Canada and Kazakhstan; conversion at Malvési and Tricastin; enrichment at Georges Besse II; fabrication through Framatome; and used-fuel reprocessing at La Hague, the largest such plant in the world.
| Headquarters | Châtillon, France |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2018 |
| Ownership | state |
| Roles in the chain | miner, converter, enricher, fabricator, reprocessing |
Position in the chain
Downstream
Output from this company feeds the stages below it in the chain, and ultimately 419 operating reactors across these types.
| Reactor type | Operating units |
|---|---|
| Pressurised water reactor | 309 |
| Pressurised heavy water reactor | 46 |
| Boiling water reactor | 45 |
| Gas-cooled reactor | 9 |
| Light water graphite reactor | 7 |
| Fast reactor | 2 |
| High-temperature gas reactor | 1 |
Facilities
| Facility | Stage | Country | Capacity / output | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Malvési and Philippe Coste (Tricastin) | conversion | FRA | 15,000tU/yr as UF6 | operating |
| Tricastin deconversion (W plant) | deconversion | FRA | 20,000tU/yr | operating |
| Georges Besse II, Tricastin | enrichment | FRA | 7,500tSWU/yr | operating |
| Project IKE, Oak Ridge | enrichment | USA | 7,500tSWU/yr | licensing |
| Melox, Marcoule | fabrication | FRA | 195tHM/yr | operating |
| Moinkum and Tortkuduk (KATCO) | mining | KAZ | 2,388tU/yr | operating |
| Somaïr (Arlit) | mining | NER | 960tU/yr | operating |
| La Hague | reprocessing | FRA | 1,700tHM/yr | operating |
Orano in context
In enrichment Orano holds 7,500 of the 68,076 tSWU/yr of world enrichment capacity in 2025 (11%), ranking 4th of the 4 named operators in the source.
In conversion Orano holds 15,000 of the 62,000 tU/yr as UF6 of world conversion capacity in 2022 (24%), ranking 2nd of the 5 named operators in the source.
In reprocessing Orano holds 1,700 of the 3,860 tHM/yr of world reprocessing capacity in 2022 (44%), ranking 1st of the 4 named operators in the source.
Orano has 8 facilities on record in 4 countries (France, United States, Kazakhstan and Niger): 7 operating and 1 planned, licensing or under construction. The oldest operating one was commissioned in 1995.
Share of each stage it works in
| Stage | Company | World total | Share | Rank | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Enrichment | 7,500tSWU/yr | 68,076(2025) | 11% | 4 of 4 | World Nuclear Association, Uranium Enrichment |
| Conversion | 15,000tU/yr as UF6 | 62,000(2022) | 24% | 2 of 5 | World Nuclear Association, Conversion and Deconversion |
| Reprocessing | 1,700tHM/yr | 3,860(2022) | 44% | 1 of 4 | World Nuclear Association, Processing of Used Nuclear Fuel |
How these are worked out: shares and ranks use the world totals cited in the table, and only named companies are ranked (unnamed or country-level entries in a source are not). A facility with no stated capacity is counted as a facility but adds nothing to a capacity figure. Vendor figures count operating units where this company is the recorded reactor vendor; ages count from the start-up year on record, and build times run from construction start to grid connection, as on the age and build-times pages.
Sources
- Orano, company source
- Global Nuclear Power Tracker, Global Energy Monitor, August 2026 release , CC BY 4.0 · retrieved 2026-09-06
How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data