Since the attack on Ukraine, the EU has largely suspended its trade relations with Russia. But just like natural gas, nuclear fuels are spared from sanctions. The Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) now confirms the arrival of another Russian delivery.
In the midst of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, a uranium transport from Russia reached the fuel element factory in Lingen in Emsland at the end of September. This emerges from data published on the Internet by the Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE). Accordingly, enriched uranium hexafluoride was transported to Lingen on September 28th and 29th.
A spokesman for the authority confirmed the delivery on request. The Federal Office does not provide any further information. The transport was based on permits from 2021. There is no import ban from Russia for nuclear fuels or for gas at EU level.
Nuclear power opponents in Emsland had expected the deliveries at the beginning of September, protested against this and demanded an immediate stop to uranium imports from Russia. At the time, the authorities gave little information about the exact course of the transport. The Alliance for Nuclear Power Opponents in Emsland (AgiEL) is demanding that the federal government shut down the fuel element factory in Emsland.
Most recently, uranium was delivered to Lingen from Russia on January 18, a good month before the start of the war on February 24. The French company Framatome’s plant there has been producing fuel elements for nuclear power generation in Europe for more than 40 years. The factory supplies nuclear power plants in Belgium, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, Sweden and Finland, among others.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently made use of his directive authority and ordered that the remaining three German nuclear power plants can continue to operate until April 15, 2023 at the latest. The word of power had become necessary because the Greens and FDP could not agree in the internal government dispute about the continued operation of the German kiln. At the same time, Scholz ruled out the purchase of new fuel rods.
