Transport of natural uranium, imports of enriched uranium … The NGO Greenpeace details, in a report published on Saturday, relations between France and Russia in this sector always spared by European sanctions.
by perrine mouterde and marjorie cessac
“I will be clear: France is not dependent on Russia for the operation of its electrical park.” To support the words of the Minister of Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, formulated on December 6, 2022 In front of the National Assembly, the nuclear sector has arguments: France anythe natural uranium extracted from Russian mines, it has enrichment and conversion capacities on its territory and fuel manufactured by French companies or American.
In practice, however, the trade of uranium between Paris and Moscow continues, and France has continued, since the start of the war in Ukraine, at the end of February 2022, to use a factory located in Siberia for ” Recycling “radioactive materials, as shown by various surveys unveiled in recent months. A report by the NGO Greenpeace, published on Saturday March 11, documents other aspects of relations between the French nuclear sector and the giant Rosatom, and shows that the Russian influence is much more extensive than what the actors of the sector suggested .
The anti -nuclear organization shows in particular that the Russian Federation controls the transport of a large part of natural uranium imported from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. It also notes that neither French operators nor the government can say that the natural uranium used in power plants has not been extracted from mines operated by Rosatom in Kazakhstan. Finally, if France anythe Russian natural uranium, it brought from Russia, in 2022, even more enriched uranium than in previous years.
main road from Central to Central Asia Europe
Tratacal company created in 2007 by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, Rosatom has been involved for a year in the occupation of the Ukrainian power station in Zaporijia. Despite the calls of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the European Parliament, which adopted a resolution on the subject, in early February, nuclear remains one of the last sectors completely spared by European sanctions.
Concerning France, Greenpeace is particularly interested in the transport of natural uranium from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. According to French customs figures, more than 40 % of natural uranium imported into France in 2022 come from these two countries. However, the main road used to transport these materials to Europe, and therefore to France, goes through Russia, natural uranium arriving by train to the port of St. Petersburg, or sometimes to the port of UST-Luga, located a little further south.
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