A single installation in the world, belonging to the giant Rosatom, allows “recycling” the uranium discharged from French reactors.
by perrine mouterde
The uranium trade between Paris and Moscow continues. The French group EDF confirmed that it has received, Tuesday, November 29, a delivery of enriched reprocessing uranium (ure) from Russia, like reported it on Friday, the daily La Tribune . An operation made possible by the fact that the nuclear industry is not the subject of European sanctions despite the involvement of the Russian giant Rosatom in the occupation of the Zaporijia power station, in Ukraine.
Questioned in mid-November by MO12345lemonde regarding the implementation of the contract signed in 2018 with Tenex, a subsidiary of Rosatom, for the transformation of reprocessing uranium, EDF had indicated that “no delivery or importation “From uranium to or from Russia” n ‘[had] taken place since February 2022 “, since the start of the war, without specifying that a delivery was expected less than two weeks later. The company also indicated that it had initiated discussions with Orano and Westinghouse to set up a conversion to conversion of reprocessing uranium (URT) in Western Europe.
France is one of the only nuclearized countries to have chosen to reprocess its worn fuels, which consists in separating waste from the materials that can be reused, namely plutonium and URT. Currently, only a Rosatom factory -it is located in the Tomsk region, in Siberia -is capable of “recycling” this URT from the fifty -six French reactors.
Contacted by MO12345lemonde Friday, EDF did not wish to specify how much AU had been received or give more details on the content of the contract concluded with Tenex or on future deliveries. The company says “continue to strictly apply all international sanctions”. The French Ministry of Energy Transition, for its part, has not responded to requests from the world.
Greenpeace for the cessation of nuclear trade with Russia
The Greenpeace anti-nuclear organization and Mediapart information site had revealed, Tuesday, that” dozens of enriched uranium barrels and ten containers ‘Natural uranium from Russia “had arrived by Cargo that day in the port of Dunkirk (North). Regarding enriched uranium, the NGO could not specify, from its observations, if it were natural uranium or reprocessing. During the day, the manufacturer of nuclear power plants and supplier of Framatome fuel, a subsidiary of EDF, had told the agency France-Presse having received a “delivery of material for the manufacture of nuclear fuels” for its factory of Romans-sur-Isère (Drôme).
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