The uranium trade between Paris and Moscow continues. The French group EDF confirmed that it received, on Tuesday 29 November, a delivery of enriched reprocessed uranium (URE) from Russia, as reported it on Friday, the daily The gallery. An operation made possible by the fact that the nuclear industry is not subject to European sanctions despite the involvement of the Russian giant Rosatom in the occupation of the Zaporijia power plant in Ukraine.
Interviewed in mid-November by The world regarding the implementation of the contract signed in 2018 with Tenex, a subsidiary of Rosatom, for the transformation of reprocessed uranium, EDF had indicated that“no delivery or import” of uranium to or from Russia ” not’[avait] taken place since February 2022”, either since the beginning of the war, without specifying that a delivery was expected less than two weeks later. The company also indicated that it had entered into discussions with Orano and with Westinghouse to set up a reprocessing uranium conversion facility (URT) in Western Europe.
France is one of the only nuclear countries to have opted for the reprocessing of its spent fuel, which consists of separating the waste from materials that can be reused, namely plutonium and URT. However, currently, only one Rosatom plant – it is located in the Tomsk region, in Siberia – is capable of ” to recycle “ this URT from fifty-six French reactors.
Contacted by The world Friday, EDF did not wish to specify which quantity of URE had been received nor to give more details on the content of the contract concluded with Tenex or on future deliveries. The company claims “continue to strictly apply all international sanctions”. The French Ministry of Energy Transition, for its part, did not respond to requests from the World.
Greenpeace for the end of nuclear trade with Russia
The anti-nuclear organization Greenpeace and the Mediapart news site revealed on Tuesday that “Dozens of drums of enriched uranium and ten containers of natural uranium from Russia” had arrived that day by cargo ship in the port of Dunkirk (North). Regarding enriched uranium, the NGO could not specify, based on its observations, whether it was natural or reprocessed uranium. During the day, the constructor of nuclear power plants and fuel supplier Framatome, a subsidiary of EDF, told Agence France-Presse that it had received a “delivery of material for the manufacture of nuclear fuels” to its factory in Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme).
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