PARIS (AP) - French nuclear giants Areva and EDF will merge their reactor businesses in a joint venture controlled by EDF - a wide-ranging reshuffle of the country's state-owned atomic energy industry.
French President Francois Hollande's office announced the deal's broad outlines Wednesday, saying final details would be negotiated by the two companies within a month.
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The company employees about 1,800 people in Lynchburg and announced back in March it was "in crisis."
The company has a pumps and motor service center, as well as a technical training center in Lynchburg. According to its website, the company lost $5.3 billion in 2014. Despite the loss, executives said they had a recovery plan in place, including a $1 billion savings by 2017. It is unclear if this merger is what the company was referring to.
It is also unclear how this merger will affect operations in Lynchburg.
Meanwhile, the French government controls over 80 percent of both companies and said it will inject new capital "of the necessary amount" in Areva as part of the deal.
The outcome is a major reversal for Areva, whose ex-CEO Anne Lauvergeon fought off attempts to marry her company and EDF for years.
Areva lost nearly 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion) last year after taking a massive loss on new reactor projects in France and Finland.
Both companies are run by CEOs who've been at the helm for less than a year - Areva by Philippe Knoche and EDF by Jean-Bernard Levy. Late last year Areva chairman Philippe Varin also took a board seat at EDF in a move widely seen as paving the way for closer ties between the long-time atomic rivals.
Last month Areva announced a 1-billion-euro cost-cutting plan, which included the removal of up to 6,000 jobs.
Only five years ago Areva was seen as a French success story, led by swashbuckling CEO Lauvergeon as it rode the wave of the so-called "nuclear renaissance."
The company's fortunes collapsed after a series of failures, including massive cost-overruns and technical failings with its new generation reactor; a disastrous investment in a Nigerien uranium mine; and the aftereffects of a global rejection of nuclear power after Japan's Fukushima reactor meltdown.
WSLS 10 contributed to this report.