Areva sales rise as nuclear business picks up

(AP) France's state-controlled nuclear giant Areva says its revenue grew 5.3 percent last year as the nuclear business picked up and moved past the Fukushima disaster that called into question the future of atomic energy.

The company said Thursday that it brought in 9.34 billion ($12.66 billion) in 2012. It saw the biggest growth in its renewable energy, nuclear fuel and reactors business groups. Sales from renewable energies rose 92 percent but they still make up a very small proportion of the company's overall take.

Areva is mounting a budding turnaround by cutting its costs after a dismal 2011, when Japan's nuclear disaster sparked a global rethink of atomic energy, and the company lost billions, much of it on the back of a troubled mining venture.