Greenpeace condemned France’s resumption of shipments of reprocessed uranium to Russia
Greenpeace denounced this on Sunday to Agence France-Presse“intensification” nuclear trade between France and Russia, after observing the loading of reprocessed uranium at Dunkirk destined for Russia.
Greenpeace France filmed, on Saturday in Dunkirk, the loading of about ten containers with radioactive labels onto the ship. Mikhail-Doudin. According to the NGO, the ship, under the Panamanian flag, goes there regularly to unload enriched uranium or natural uranium loaded in Saint Petersburg. However, this is the first export of refined uranium (URT) to Russia that Greenpeace says it has observed in more than three years.
“It’s not illegal, but it’s immoral”Pauline Boyer, nuclear campaign manager for Greenpeace France, told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “France should terminate its contract with Rosatom, a state company that has occupied Ukraine’s nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia for more than three years., the first in the history of war. »
In 2018, EDF signed a 600 million euro contract with Tenex, a subsidiary of Rosatom, to “recycling reprocessed uranium”. This operation is not affected by international sanctions imposed against Russia. Rosatom has the only site in the world capable of carrying out the conversion stage of reprocessed uranium, before it is re-enriched, which can be done in Russia or the Netherlands.
When asked by AFP, the French Energy Ministry, EDF and Orano, another potential Rosatom customer, did not respond.
