Despite the war in Ukraine, French nuclear still dependent on Russia, denounces Greenpeace in a report

French nuclear remains dependent on Russia, and even more and more despite the war in Ukraine. This is the conclusion of a report published on Saturday March 11 by the NGO Greenpeace and which franceinfo was able to consult. This report reveals that last year, France not only continued to import Russian enriched uranium, it almost tripled its imports: 312 tons, i.e. one third of the quantity necessary to operate French nuclear power plants for a year. The Russian nuclear industry therefore completely escapes sanctions, denounces Greenpeace in this report, two days before the examination, Monday, March 13, of the nuclear acceleration bill in the National Assembly. This text aims to accelerate the construction of new nuclear reactors.

>> Already last November, Greenpeace denounced the “scandalous” continuation of the uranium trade between France and Russia

Throughout 2022, Russian cargo ships filled with uranium continued to deliver to France, comments Pauline Boyer, nuclear campaigner at Greenpeace. She describes “an incessant ballet of Russian freighters transporting uranium between Saint-Petersburg and Dunkirk”. There is Russian enriched uranium, but also natural uranium, confirms Pauline Boyer, “a huge part of the natural uranium that we buy in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and which represents almost half of the natural uranium imported into France in recent years.”

Whether this uranium comes from Russia, Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan, it passes through Rosatom, the Russian public nuclear company. This giant of the sector which not only sells, distributes to France, but also takes back its uranium used to reprocess it. “We at Greenpeace find it scandalous that France continues to collaborate with Rosatom. The dependence created by Rosatom is of the same order as that created by gas and oil companies. It should be treated in the same way”storm the NGO.

EDF’s response

For its part, EDF says “maximize the diversification of its geographic sources and suppliers” in nuclear fuel: “We are not dependent on any site, any company and any country” and ensures not to have “purchased no natural uranium mined from Russian mines, nor from natural uranium conversion services in Russia in 2022”.