Nuclear power appears to some as an alternative to Russian gas. But electricity from nuclear power is leading Europe from bad to worse. According to a study by the Austrian Federal Environment Agency, “the use of nuclear energy in no way increases security of supply, but has made the operating states dependent on Russia”.
However, there is one big difference to other energies: the nuclear sector is exempt from all EU sanctions, “at French instigation,” according to the federal government.
All roads lead to Moscow when it comes to the operation and construction of nuclear power plants. Rosatom and its 300 subsidiaries operate and build more nuclear power plants (NPP) worldwide than any other country.
According to the Vienna study, “Bulgaria, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are 100 percent dependent on Russian uranium in the EU”, the EU as a whole is 20 percent dependent – that is more than the Russian share of the gas supply. Around half of the uranium enriched by Rosatom ends up in EU countries and Great Britain.
The company owes its success to clever international alliances, especially with France. Rosatom has concluded countless agreements in recent years with the state utility EDF, the fuel supplier Orano and the plant manufacturer Framatom, which also carries the French nuclear armament.
One of the managing directors of Rosatom Western Europe even studied at the elite French military school, Ecole Polytechnique.
The close cooperation results in a four-fold dependency: Firstly, France obtains enriched uranium from Russia, often via the Framatom subsidiary ANF in Lingen in northern Germany. Between March 2020 and September 2022 alone, 26 deliveries of uranium pellets and the precursor uranium hexafluoride arrived there.
Second, France exports spent uranium from its nuclear power plants to Russia, partly via Lingen. It is enriched again in Tomsk, Russia, because Orano itself does not have such a facility. The fresh fuel will be used in the most powerful EDF reactors, which are currently being modernized.
“The contracts usually stipulate that the part that can no longer be used, in terms of quantity most of it, remains in Russia,” says an expert on the subject. Weapons-grade plutonium is also separated.
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The EU bans the export of nuclear waste, but depleted uranium is considered a recyclable material: a clever circumvention that relieves France’s interim storage facilities, which are bursting at the seams. Orano has built depleted uranium conditioning plants in Russia.
The third form of dependency: Rosatom takes Framatom, EDF or Schneider Electric with it when it builds new nuclear power plants abroad. The French can then deliver turbines, control technology or safety devices. Framatom and Siemens are contributing the control technology for reactors under construction in Hungary and Egypt.
“French companies are involved in the construction of Russian reactors and earn good money from it,” observes Roger Spautz of Greenpeace France. France is grateful: in 2018, Rosatom and Framatom agreed that the French would help a Rosatom subsidiary obtain EU certifications.
>> Read here: Franco-German relations need a fresh start
A fourth dependency is emerging: last year, Air Liquide and EDF agreed with Rosatom to produce “green” hydrogen, in France, Russia and elsewhere. EDF told the Handelsblatt that the agreement was temporarily suspended.
Russia’s energy strategy is clever
So the Russians are cleverly occupying another key sector for Europe’s energy supply. With the construction of magnets for wind turbines, a rare component, they have another ace up their sleeve.
Despite repeated requests, Framatom refused to comment on its cooperation with Rosatom. The German Rosatom subsidiary Nukem, which has 125 employees, is different. Its managing director Thomas Seipolt told the Handelsblatt: “Since the start of the Ukraine war, only a negligibly small number of orders have been canceled.”
In order to strengthen cooperation with the Russians, Framatom even wanted to sell them a stake in their German plant in Lingen. The federal government made it clear informally that it didn’t think it was a good idea. Officially, the application is still pending.
Rosatom is also involved in Russia’s nuclear armament and Putin’s predatory war in Ukraine, where Russian personnel are occupying the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. President Emmanuel Macron, whose rhetoric calls for more EU sovereignty, is nevertheless sticking to the pact with Rosatom.
The Federal Government, on the other hand, is now keeping its distance: The Federal Environment Ministry told the Handelsblatt that it was in favor of “the extension of EU sanctions to Russia’s nuclear industry. This will have to be agreed with the European partners.” That would be a long-overdue political turnaround.
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