France buys uranium from russia despite the war

France continues to buy uranium from the russians, despite the russian war of aggression.

On Tuesday, November 29, the vessel “Mikhail Dudin”, which came from St. Petersburg, unloaded in the port of Dunkirk. This is the first shipment of russian uranium since the start of the full-scale war, Mediapart reports.

After February 24, French companies continued to send spent fuel from their nuclear reactors to russia. The nuclear industry has not been subject to EU sanctions, but trade in nuclear materials with the russian federation can and should stop, Le Monde comments.

Although the supply of uranium does not violate any laws or sanctions, against the background of the war in Ukraine and nuclear blackmail of russian federation, nuclear trade is unacceptable, said Pauline Boyer, head of the Greenpeace-France energy program.

The fact is that russia has the only uranium processing plant in the world. Over the past two years, French companies Orano and EDF have been exporting spent nuclear fuel to russia.

Meanwhile, France’s nuclear waste storage facilities are overflowing. And the nuclear sector was not affected by any of the eight packages of sanctions against russian federation. Although there is currently nothing illegal about these supplies, in addition to environmental concerns, it now raises serious ethical questions.