Framatome

Framatome (French pronunciation: [fʁamatɔm]) is a French nuclear reactor business. It is owned by Électricité de France (EDF) (80.5%) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (19.5%). The company first formed in 1958 to license Westinghouse's pressurized water reactor (PWR) designs for use in France. Similar agreements had been put in place with other European countries, and this led to a 1962 contract for a complete plant at Chooz. Westinghouse sold its stake to engineering firm Creusot-Loire in 1976, and the company became solely French owned. In 2001, Siemens sold its reactor business to Framatome. As part of a larger series of mergers with Cogema and Technicatome, Framatome became the Areva NP division of the new Areva. It changed its name back to Framatome in 2018 after a major investment by utility operator EDF. While originally a licensing and construction business, today Framatome supplies the entire reactor life-cycle, including design of the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR), construction, fuel management and many related tasks.