AREVA and EDF Strengthen Their Long-Term Partnership for Natural Uranium

Regulatory News:

EDF and AREVA (Paris:AREVA) have reached an agreement on the principles of a long-term partnership to supply natural uranium over the 2014-2030 period, ensuring the security of supply and the competitiveness of the French nuclear fleet.

This partnership is in line with the decisions made by the Conseil de Politique Nucléaire (French nuclear policy council) on February 21, 2011. It consolidates the historic ties fostered with EDF for the supply of nuclear fuel, and demonstrates AREVA’s efforts to strengthen its links with its main customers.

Covering a total volume which can reach more than 20,000 metric tons, the agreed principles foresee the extension of the supply contract from AREVA's existing mines, and open up the possibility of EDF part-funding the development of a new mining project in exchange for a share of its future production. These principles will provide the basis for a series of agreements which will be subject to approval by the management bodies of the two Groups.

This new industrial and financial partnership consolidates AREVA’s status as leading partner of EDF for the supply of natural uranium. AREVA currently provides EDF with nearly 40% of its annual requirements in this area.

For EDF CEO Henri Proglio, "this partnership confirms the cohesiveness of the French nuclear industry and opens up new cooperation prospects. It gives us long term visibility and is fully consistent with our strategy to secure the uranium supplies of our nuclear power plants.”

Luc Oursel, CEO of AREVA, declared: "This new long-term agreement with EDF, following those signed for the supply of steam generators, and for the operational optimization of French nuclear facilities, consolidates the unity of the French nuclear sector. This agreement demonstrates the solidity of our relationship with our historic partner, and demonstrates anew the ability of AREVA to offer its customers long-term solutions which are tailored to their needs and ensure security of supply.”

MORE ABOUT EDF AND AREVA

The EDF Group, one of the leaders in the European energy market, is an integrated energy company active in all areas of the business: generation, transmission, distribution, energy supply and trading. The Group is the leading electricity producer in Europe. In France, it has mainly nuclear and hydraulic production facilities where 95% of the electricity output is CO₂-free.
EDF’s transmission and distribution subsidiaries in France operate 1,285,000 km of low and medium voltage overhead and underground electricity lines and around 100,000 km of high and very high voltage networks. The Group is involved in supplying energy and services to approximately 28 million customers in France. The Group generated consolidated sales of € 65.2 billion in 2010, of which 44.5% was achieved outside of France. EDF is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange and is a member of the CAC 40 index.

AREVA supplies solutions for power generation with less carbon. Its expertise and unwavering insistence on safety, security, transparency and ethics are setting the standard, and its responsible development is anchored in a process of continuous improvement.
Ranked first in the global nuclear power industry, AREVA’s unique integrated offering to utilities covers every stage of the fuel cycle, nuclear reactor design and construction, and related services. The group is also expanding in renewable energies – wind, solar, bioenergies, hydrogen and storage – to be one of the top three in this sector worldwide in 2012.
With these two major offers, AREVA’s 48,000 employees are helping to supply ever safer, cleaner and more economical energy to the greatest number of people.