Lower Saxony blames Berlin; Berlin points to the European Commission
A subsidiary of Russia’s Rosatom will provide the technology, licences and equipment to produce hexagonal nuclear fuel rods in Germany in a joint venture with state-owned Électricité de France (EDF), extending the Kremlin’s role in the EU nuclear supply chain.
Lingen, a town of fewer than 60,000 people in Lower Saxony, has been at the centre of a years-long dispute over plans to expand its nuclear fuel production facility. The project is particularly sensitive because France’s flagship power generator wants to produce hexagonal fuel rods for Soviet-era reactors in central Europe.
On Thursday, the local environment ministry approved the plans.
The technology will be provided by TVEL, a subsidiary of Russian nuclear firm Rosatom once described as “deeply embedded within the Russian military complex.” Its current CEO is sanctioned by the US and UK, while its former director is now the Kremlin’s deputy chief of staff.
TVEL’s partner in the joint venture is Advanced Nuclear Fuels GmbH (ANF), a subsidiary of Framatome, which is 80% owned by the state-owned EDF.
Framatome argues the project will strengthen fuel supplies for reactors in Czechia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary and Finland that are based on Cold War-era technology.
Reliance on Russia
While the fuel may be “manufactured in Germany, it will rely on Russian technology, manufacturing know-how and licensing agreements with Rosatom’s subsidiary TVEL,” said Diana Sushkova, an expert at Ukrainian think tank DIXI Group.
The project has drawn comparisons with Germany’s decades-long reliance on cheap Russian natural gas, which left it dangerously exposed when President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia earned about €700 million from exports of enriched uranium, which can be processed into nuclear fuel, in 2024.
“I think Germany should remember the lessons of gas dependency on Russia,” said Ville Niinistö, a Finnish Green MEP who negotiated last year’s ban on Russian gas imports, which will take full effect in autumn 2027.
“Russia uses all forms of energy exports, including nuclear capabilities, as a geopolitical extension of its foreign policy,” Niinistö told Euractiv. Approving the Franco-Russian joint venture “equals support for Putin’s war and his power.”
Germany, France and the rest of the bloc “should remember this,” he added. “Russian nuclear exports should be banned.”
Sushkova said the project created a “backdoor” for Russian nuclear technology that would carry a “Made in EU” label despite remaining entirely dependent on Kremlin-controlled technology and licences.
Blame game
The approval has prompted a dispute over who bears responsibility for allowing the project to proceed in the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Lower Saxony, which approved the facility, suggested Germany’s federal environment ministry in Berlin had effectively required it to grant the permit. The state’s environment minister, Christian Meyer, also a Green, described the decision as “fundamentally wrong.”
Berlin said Meyer’s ministry was “independent” in its decision. Lower Saxony countered that the federal ministry had concluded there were no legal grounds to block the permit.
Both point to Brussels, where the European Commission has yet to publish a legal proposal to ban imports of Russian nuclear fuel.
“We continue to advocate for EU sanctions against Russia in the nuclear sector,” a spokesperson for the federal environment ministry said.
Going nuclear
Russian nuclear companies have so far proved remarkably difficult to sanction. The EU last week agreed its 21st package of sanctions against Russia, targeting sectors ranging from banking to fertiliser.
Russian technology and enriched uranium remain widely used in eastern Europe, with several former Warsaw Pact countries relying on Soviet-era Water-Water Energetic Reactors (VVER) for much of their electricity.
Sources briefed on discussions in the Commission suggest Paris in particular, backed by countries such as Hungary that remain reliant on Russian technology and fuel, had obstructed sanctions on Rosatom and its web of subsidiaries. France denies this.
“There was never a proposal, so we never blocked it,” said a spokesperson for France’s Permanent Representation to the EU.
Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen previously promised the Commission would propose “new restrictions [on] Russian enriched uranium and other nuclear materials” in early 2025.
Imposing high tariffs on Russian nuclear products – which, unlike sanctions, would not require unanimous approval from EU governments – has been discussed as a political workaround. No such proposal has yet been published.
A Commission spokesperson told reporters on Thursday that the executive was “working on it” and remained committed to bringing forward a proposal. Jørgensen declined to comment.
Source: Euractiv