Monday morning, at the port of Dunkirk, a series of gray cylinders of about 3.7 t each, labeled with the symbol of radioactivity, were unloaded from a Russian cargo ship, AFP journalists found.

"This is a new illustration that the French nuclear industry continues to trade uranium with Rosatom," the Russian public nuclear giant, Pauline Boyer, campaigner on nuclear and energy transition, told AFP.

"The continuation of this nuclear trade with Russia, in time of war, is scandalous," she denounced in reference to the invasion of Ukraine.

With a total net weight of about 55 tons, this is, according to Greenpeace, the 7th delivery of France-enriched uranium from Russia since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

According to Greenpeace, the labeling of the cargo, authenticated by AFP, mentions a "delivery" between Tenex, a subsidiary of Rosatom, and Orano (formerly Areva), the French player in nuclear fuel.

2018 contract

"The Russian cargo ship Baltiyskiy 202 arriving from St. Petersburg has unloaded 25 cylindrical containers containing Russian enriched uranium for the French group Orano," Greenpeace said in a statement, on the eve of the solemn vote in the National Assembly of the bill on the acceleration of nuclear power.

Greenpeace activist at the port of Dunkirk where a cargo of enriched uranium from Russia was delivered, March 20, 2023 © Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP

These cylinders were then "loaded on a dozen trucks to" the Orano site in the Drôme, to be then sent to Romans-sur-Isère, to the Framatome plant to be assembled into fuel, according to the NGO.

"Orano is not the owner of this material" which is intended to be "stored on our site of Tricastin, on behalf of EDF," responded to AFP a spokesman for Orano.

"This is indeed material enriched by Tenex for EDF under a contract signed before February 2022," the electrician confirmed to AFP.

Orano claims to have closed its commercial contract with Rosatom in October 2022, unlike EDF, which is linked to a contract concluded with the subsidiary Tenex in 2018, before the war, to recycle and enrich uranium from the reprocessing of spent fuel of the French group.

Nuclear excluding sanctions

At that time, Russia has the only conversion plant in the world capable of converting URT," said an EDF spokeswoman, assuring that the group "strictly applies all international sanctions".

Derived from the reprocessing of spent fuel, URT or recycled uranium, can be reused to produce new fuel after being converted and then re-enriched.

At present, nearly 34,000 tonnes of URT are stored at the Tricastin site, constituting a "strategic reserve" for future reuse as fuel according to Orano.

A Greenpeace activist at the port of Dunkirk where a cargo of enriched uranium from Russia was delivered, March 20, 2023 © Sameer Al-DOUMY / AFP

In a report on 11 March, Greenpeace denounced the France's "dependence" on Russian nuclear power, a sector that is not targeted by international sanctions, unlike hydrocarbons.

The NGO had noted that the France had received in 2022 from Russia "a third of the enriched uranium necessary for the operation of French nuclear power plants for one year", a quantity of 312 tons, tripled compared to 2021, according to it.

The French government had refuted this argument, assuring that "our country does not depend in any way on Russia for the operation of its nuclear power plant" and "has been able to diversify its sources of supply".

© 2023 AFP