German imports up 70% – RT in French

Over one year, Germany has increased its imports of uranium from Russia by “nearly 70%”, according to Der Spiegel. So far, Russian uranium is not on the European bloc’s sanctions lists. Russian supplies could continue to increase.

Since 2023, Germany has imported at least 68.6 tons of uranium from Russia, “nearly 70% more than in 2023,” reported January 3 Der Spiegelciting data from the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment, Energy and Climate Protection.

The ore, intended to power nuclear reactors, is delivered to the fuel element production plant in Lingen, Lower Saxony, operated by Advanced Nuclear Fuels (ANF). The latter is a subsidiary of Framatome, which itself belongs to the French group EDF.

Der Spiegel underlines that the company intends to produce fuel assemblies at this site for Russian-type pressurized water reactors VVER. “Five EU countries currently operate 19 VVER reactors”, underlines the German weekly, citing a report before mentioning the reactors of Bulgaria, Finland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia .

“There is no right answer”

“I don’t think there is a good answer to this question” declared in early April 2023, returning from a visit to kyiv, German Vice-Chancellor and Minister of the Economy and Climate Protection Robert Habeck (Greens).

The German official reported that the issue of supplying European member states with Russian uranium was raised by the Ukrainian side.

“But it will have to happen one day, even if it implies changes for the countries which still have nuclear power plants powered by Russian uranium,” assured Robert Habeck, adding that this seemed “reasonable” to him and that he would “work” there.

In mid-November, faced with the restrictions imposed by the United States for the period 2024-2027 and the ban planned from 2028 on the import of products based on Russian uranium, Russia announced that it would impose temporary restrictions on the export of enriched uranium to the United States. The American text, approved at the end of April by Congress, provided for exemptions in the event of supply problems for American power plants.