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UKRAINE

France eyes spent uranium plant to bypass Russia: ministry

The French government has said it is "seriously" studying the option of building a plant to convert and enrich reprocessed uranium to cut its reliance on Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

Published: 30 March 2024 08:24 CET
This photo taken in Braud-et-Saint-Louis, southwestern France on October 22, 2023, shows a general view of the Blayais nuclear power station.
This photo taken in Braud-et-Saint-Louis, southwestern France on October 22, 2023, shows a general view of the Blayais nuclear power station. The French government has said it is "seriously" studying the option of building a plant to convert and enrich reprocessed uranium for use in nuclear power plants to cut its reliance on Russia. (Photo by Thibaud MORITZ / AFP)

The only plant in the world that currently converts reprocessed uranium for use in nuclear power plants is in Russia.

“The option of carrying out an industrial project to convert reprocessed uranium in France is being seriously examined,” the French industry and energy ministry told AFP late Thursday.

“The associated conditions are still being studied,” the ministry said.

The announcement came after French daily Le Monde said that state-owned power utility EDF had no immediate plans to halt uranium trade with Russia, as Moscow’s war against Ukraine stretches into its third year.

Environment and climate NGO Greenpeace condemned the continuing uranium trade between Russia and France despite Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, and urged France to cut ties with Russia’s state nuclear power company Rosatom.

“If Emmanuel Macron wants to have a coherent stance on Ukraine, he must stop the French nuclear industry’s collaboration with Rosatom and demand the termination of Russian contracts,” Pauline Boyer of Greenpeace France said in
a statement to AFP on Friday.

“For the time being, his ‘support without limits’ for Ukraine has one limit: his business with Rosatom,” she said.

According to Le Monde, Jean-Michel Quilichini, head of the nuclear fuel division at EDF, said the company planned to continue to “honour” its 2018 contract with Tenex, a Rosatom subsidiary.

The contract stipulates that reprocessed uranium from French nuclear power plants is to be sent to a facility in the town of Seversk (formerly Tomsk-7) in western Siberia to be converted and then re-enriched before being reused in nuclear plants.

Since Russian President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the West has imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow, but Russia’s nuclear power has remained largely unscathed.

Contacted by AFP, EDF said it was “maximising the diversification of its geographical sources and suppliers”, without specifying the proportion of its enriched reprocessed uranium supplies that comes from Russia.

‘Neither legitimate nor ethical’

Greenpeace said it was “scandalous” that EDF insisted on continuing honouring its agreement with Rosatom.

“It is neither legitimate nor ethical for EDF to continue doing business with Rosatom, a company in the service of Vladimir Putin, which has illegally occupied the Zaporizhzhia power plant in Ukraine for over two years, and is participating in the nuclear threat whipped up by Russia in this war,” Boyer said.

EDF said it and several partners were discussing “the construction of a reprocessed uranium conversion plant in Western Europe by 2030”.

“The fact that the French nuclear industry has never invested in the construction of such a facility on French soil indicates a lack of interest in
a tedious and unprofitable industrial process,” Greenpeace said in a report in 2021.

It accused France of using Siberia “as a garbage dump for the French nuclear industry”.

In recent years France has been seeking to resuscitate its domestic uranium reprocessing industry.

In early February, a reactor at the Cruas nuclear power station in southeastern France was restarted using its first recycled uranium fuel load, EDF said at the time.

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POLITICS

Macron warns ‘mortal’ Europe needs credible defence

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression, calling on the continent to adopt a "credible" defence strategy less dependent on the United States.

Published: 25 April 2024 13:41 CEST
Macron warns 'mortal' Europe needs credible defence

He described Russia’s behaviour after its invasion of Ukraine as “uninhibited” and said it was no longer clear where Moscow’s “limits” lay.

Macron also sounded the alarm on what he described as disrespect of global trade rules by both Russia and China, calling on the European Union to revise its trade policy.

“Our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die,” he said.

“It can die and this depends only on our choices,” Macron said, warning that Europe was “not armed against the risks we face” in a world where the “rules of the game have changed”.

“Over the next decade… the risk is immense of (Europe) being weakened or even relegated,” he added, also pointing to the risk of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Macron returned to the same themes of a speech he gave in September 2017 months after taking office at the same location – the Sorbonne University in Paris – but in a context that seven years on has been turned upside down by Brexit, Covid and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Macron champions the concept of European strategic autonomy in economy and defence, arguing that Europe needs to face crises like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine without relying on the US.

He urged Europe to be more a master of its own destiny, saying in the past it was over-dependent on Russia for energy and Washington for security.

He said the indispensable “sine qua non” for European security was “that Russia does not win the war of aggression in Ukraine”.

“We need to build this strategic concept of a credible European defence for ourselves,” Macron said, adding Europe could not be “a vassal” of the United States.

He said he would ask European partners for proposals in the next months and added that Europe also needed its own capacity in cyberdefence and cybersecurity.

Macron said preference should be given to European suppliers in the purchase of military equipment and backed the idea of a European loan to finance this effort.

Macron also called for a “revision” of EU trade policy to defend European interests, accusing both China and the United States of no longer respecting the rules of global commerce.

“It cannot work if we are the only ones in the world to respect the rules of trade — as they were written up 15 years ago — if the Chinese and the Americans no longer respect them by subsidising critical sectors.”

Macron is, after Brexit and the departure from power of German chancellor Angela Merkel, often seen by commentators as Europe’s number one leader.

But his party is facing embarrassment in June’s European elections, ranking well behind the far-right in opinion polls and even risking coming third behind the Socialists.

The head of the governing party’s list for the elections, the little-known Valerie Hayer, is failing to make an impact, especially in the face of the high-profile 28-year-old Jordan Bardella leading the far right and Raphael Glucksmann emerging as a new star on the left.

Macron made no reference to the elections in his speech, even though analysts say he is clearly seeking to wade into the campaign, with his speech reading as a manifesto for the continent’s future.

“The risk is that Europe will experience a decline and we are already starting to see this despite all our efforts,” he warned.

“We are still too slow and not ambitious enough,” he added, urging a “powerful Europe”, which “is respected”, “ensures its security” and regains “its strategic autonomy”.

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