Does nuclear energy really allow France to be independent from Russia? While the war in Ukraine forced Paris to do without Russian gas, Cécile Duflot believes that the atom “is not a solution” to guarantee this energy independence. As “we do not produce fuel [nucléaire] on our soil”, “we continue to buy uranium from Russia” declared the former environmental minister, now director general of the NGO Oxfam France, Friday, September 30 on Public Senate.
#Nuclear “We don’t produce the fuel on our soil, that’s part of nuclear legends. We continue to buy uranium from Russia”, notes @CecileDuflot “Today, developing renewables is much more profitable” #HelloHome pic.twitter.com/aYtn13bImb
— Public Senate (@publicsenat) September 30, 2022
Asked by franceinfo, Cécile Duflot explains that her statement refers to a document from Greenpeace France published on March 30 (in PDF). In this “decryption note” of the NGO, it is actually written that France imported from Russia “19,245 tonnes of natural uranium” (i.e. the ore in its raw state, extracted directly from the mines), and “8,213 tons of enriched uranium” between 2000 and 2020.
However, according to the latest data available, imports of natural uranium from Russia are now almost zero. The Euratom Technical Committee (CTE), the authority responsible for monitoring the application of international controls on nuclear materials, told franceinfo that in 2020, France purchased 6,282 tonnes of uranium, mainly from Niger ( 34.72% of imports), Kazakhstan (28.95%), Uzbekistan (26.43%) and Australia (9.91%). Russia only exported 2 kg of natural uranium to France that year, an almost negligible quantity.
For the year 2021, French customs statistics confirm that there has not been the slightest import of natural uranium from Russia. On the other hand, around 110 tonnes of enriched uranium* were indeed acquired from Moscow. And according to Greenpeace, a delivery of 52 drums of enriched uranium from Saint-petersburg has was unloaded at the port of Dunkirk on August 25.
More than on the supply of uranium itself, the influence of Russia is felt on “the control of transport routes”, notes Anna Creti, professor of economics at the University of Paris Dauphine-PSL. To reach France, the uranium extracted from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, from which in 2020 more than 63% of French imports, is partly routed via Russian territory. So far, this transit has not been disrupted, nuclear-related trade not being targeted by the sanctions enacted in response to the invasion of Ukraine.
Although uranium imports from Russia appear modest, they nevertheless reflect an interdependence between the French nuclear fuel recycling sector and the Russian uranium enrichment sector. The France indeed imports from Russia “enriched reprocessed uranium” (URE)an ore from the recycling of spent fuel from French power plants, confirms Valérie FaudonGeneral Delegate of the French Society of Educationenergy notuclear (Sfen).
In order to be recyclable, a fuel already used must be re-enriched, thanks to centrifuges which will increase its proportion of uranium 235, a type of atom more efficient in nuclear fission. For some “cost reasons”EDF has subcontracted this re-enrichment phase at Tenexa subsidiary of the Russian group Rosatom, explains Anna Creti. According to Valerie Faudonthis outsourcing from enrichment to Rosatom “does not pose a problem of supply” because hascurrently, “no French plant still uses enriched reprocessing uranium from Russia”.
The use of recycled uranium is actually only supposed to start in 2023, specifies EDF in its annual report (in PDF). According to Valérie Faudon, imports of ERUs can be stopped without harming the operation of the power plants. “If we are asked to run all the reactors with natural uranium, we will do it”, ensuresdoes she. Finding an alternative to the Russian channel would not be “not so easy”, nevertheless tempers Anna Creti. If France were to re-enrich itself its spent fuel, “she should build her own facility” conversion of recycled uranium, which will raise the question of the profitability of the recycling process.
In the opposite direction, France also exports a “large volume” of nuclear materials to Russia, emphasizes Pauline Boyer, energy transition expert for Greenpeace France. At the end of 2020, the French group Orano signed a contract with Rosatom to supply it with 1,150 tonnes of spent uranium. “The uranium sent in several transports was converted and then re-enriched in Russia in order to manufacture fuel for the Russian reactors”, confirmed Orano near franceinfo.
“While Ukraine calls for an end to all trade, including nuclear, with Russia, the French government lets the French nuclear industry work with Rosatom” deplores Pauline Boyer. Now, this russian group “took possession of the Ukrainian power plant in Zaporizhia” and participate, in the “endangering” by his occupation, to the “nuclear threat” in the Ukrainian conflict.
Asked by franceinfo about uranium imports from Russia, EDF said follow “with attention the situation in Ukraine”. The group further states “that he will be able to make decisions on his scope of activity according to the evolution of the conflict”. On his side, Orano emphasizes that the contract with Rosatom is now “balance” and “that no new contract relating to the purchase or sale of nuclear materials has been signed [par le groupe] since the outbreak of the war.”
*The paragraph on the enriched uranium import figure was modified after publication of this article. A statement stating that the 110 tonnes of enriched uranium imported from Russia represented “0.01% of total French uranium imports” was removed because it was erroneous. It amounted to counting in the same percentage, enriched uranium and natural uranium. According to the scientific journal Reflections of Physics published by the CNRS, natural uranium and enriched uranium are not equivalent minerals: approximately 8 kg of natural uranium must be processed to obtain 1 kg of enriched uranium.