It added that employment at the site in the Cotentin area of Normandy would be stable as jobs lost in recycling would be compensated by new jobs in the nuclear reactor dismantling activity at La Hague, which employs 3,100 people.

"The site must become competitive again, to maintain the profitability of our the downstream part of our nuclear activities and to safeguard our investments in northern Cotentin," Areva said in a statement on Friday.

It said the jobs would be lost through natural attrition, as staff who retire will not be replaced.

French media on Friday quoted unions saying 500 jobs would be cut through attrition at La Hague in the next five years.

The La Hague site recycles spent nuclear fuel and is the biggest among only a few facilities of this kind in the world, along with Sellafield in Britain and Rokkasho in Japan.

Including about 1,000 Areva staff working for other Areva units and some 1,000 subcontractors, about 5,000 people work at the La Hague site.

Areva, 87 percent state-owned, will present a new strategy and financing plan early March, when it publishes 2014 earnings.

The company has posted losses in the past four years and is expected to post a 2014 loss of about 1 billion euros after losing nearly 700 million euros in the first half of 2014.

The government has put in new management lead by chief executive Philippe Knoche and board chairman Philippe Varin after the company lost billions of euros on an African uranium mine and construction delays on a Finnish reactor project.

Areva shares were down 1.1 percent early afternoon, while the broader Paris market was up nearly two percent. Down about 50 percent over the past 12 months, Areva shares are the second-worst performers in the SBF 120 index. <.SBF120>

(Reporting by Geert De Clercq, editing by David Evans)