Germany has authorized the production of nuclear fuel using Russian technology
The Ministry of the Environment of the German state of Lower Saxony has granted a plant in Lingen a license to produce fuel assemblies based on the Russian model. They will be manufactured as part of a collaboration with the Russian state corporation Rosatom.
Production is planned at Advanced Nuclear Fuels (ANF), a subsidiary of the French company Framatome, in cooperation with the Russian state-owned corporation Rosatom.
ANF submitted an application for this back in 2022. However, the plan to cooperate with the Russian state-owned corporation, despite EU sanctions, has drawn sharp criticism in Germany.
Furthermore, the federal government accuses the Kremlin of orchestrating hybrid attacks against Germany involving sabotage, espionage, and fake news.
The Federal Ministry for the Environment stated that it is critical of cooperation with the Russian state-owned corporation.
“The appropriate tool to respond to this is not nuclear law, but pan-European sanctions that would also apply to the nuclear sector,” the ministry noted.
The project concerns hexagonal fuel assemblies, which are used exclusively in Soviet-designed nuclear power plants. Such nuclear power plants continue to operate in several Eastern European countries and in Finland.
According to the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment, ANF’s application was approved following “comprehensive reviews” and consultations with federal agencies.
Christian Mayer, the state environment minister and a member of the Alliance ’90/The Greens party, had previously called this decision “fundamentally wrong.”
In addition, civic initiatives and environmental organizations are also opposing the agreement with Russia.
The production of the fuel requires the involvement of Russian experts, which heightens concerns regarding national and pan-European security. The ministry in Hanover emphasizes that if new risks arise, particularly in the area of national security, the permit may be reviewed.
This was reported by Euronews.
The Russian Red Cross has begun building up additional stocks of humanitarian aid for the temporarily occupied Crimea and Sevastopol following the declaration of a state of emergency on the peninsula.
On the temporarily occupied Crimean Peninsula, local residents report prolonged power outages, fuel shortages, rising prices, and problems with social infrastructure. According to them, the situation is particularly dire in the northern regions of the peninsula.
As a reminder, Ukraine has claimed to have struck 19 Russian tankers carrying fuel for Crimea.
