Environmental campaign group Greenpeace hit out at the resumption of nuclear trade between France and Russia during its war with Ukraine after activists observed the loading of a tanker in northern France with reprocessed uranium bound for Russia.
Issued on: 18/11/2025 - RFI
Greenpeace published video that it said its activists shot on Saturday of around 10 containers with radioactive labels going onto a cargo ship in Dunkirk.
The Panamanian-registered ship, the Mikhail Dudin, is regularly used to carry enriched or natural uranium from France to St Petersburg, according to Greenpeace.
Saturday's consignment was the first of reprocessed uranium to be observed for three years, it added.
"The resumption of this trade once again shows France’s dependence on Russia," Pauline Boyer, the head of Greenpeace France's nuclear campaign, told RFI.
The images released by Greenpeace came two days ahead of a meeting in Paris between the French president, Emmanuel Macron and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to discuss Ukraine's air defence systems.
"Despite the French government’s commitments to support Ukraine — which is, fortunately, the case — on the other hand, there is ongoing collaboration with Rosatom, the Russian nuclear company, which is indirectly contributing to the financing of the war."
Rosatom has occupied the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant for more than three and a half years.
"It has made itself complicit in crimes committed with the Russian army against the nuclear plant’s employees," Boyer added.
"It is outrageous that French nuclear companies — EDF, Orano, Framatome — continue to collaborate with Rosatom."
Greenpeace cries scandal as France continues to import Russian uranium
French state-controlled energy giant Electricité de France (EDF) signed a 600-million-euro deal in 2018 with a Rosatom subsidiary, Tenex, for the recycling of reprocessed uranium.
These operations have not been affected by international sanctions over the Ukraine war.
Rosatom has the only facility in the world - at Seversk in Siberia - capable of carrying out key parts of the conversion of reprocessed uranium to enriched reprocessed uranium.
Uranium can be reprocessed so it can be reenriched and reused. With uranium prices rising again on international markets, it is increasingly worthwhile for power companies to seek reprocessing of spent fuel.
Only about 10 percent of the reenriched uranium sent back to France by Russia is used at its Cruas nuclear power plant, in southern France, the only one in the country that can use enriched reprocessed uranium, according to Greenpeace.
Macron hopes trip to former Soviet states will secure uranium, counter Russia
France's energy ministry and EDF have yet to respond publicly to questions on the consignment or trade.
Top politicians in France ordered EDF chiefs to halt uranium trade with Rosatom in 2022 when Greenpeace France revealed the contracts in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
France said in March 2024 that it was considering the possibility of building its own conversion facility to produce enriched reprocessed uranium.
Greenpeace France Photographs Uranium Loaded on Ship for Export to Russia
Greenpeace is calling for an end to the uranium trade between France and Russia after reporting that it has resumed after a nearly three-year hiatus. The group released pictures of containers with spent uranium being loaded onto a cargo ship in the port of Dunkirk and bound for Russia.
At least 10 containers of uranium, clearly marked with dangerous cargo symbols, were observed arriving in the port of Dunkirk, France, on Saturday, November 15, and being loaded aboard the cargo ship Mikhail Dudin (3,030 dwt). Built in 1996, the general cargo ship is owned by a company based in Hong Kong and operates under the Panama flag. The vessel departed France midday on Saturday and reports its destination as Ust-Luga, Russia, a run that Greenpeace says it regularly makes carrying enriched or natural uranium.
France, according to Greenpeace, is dependent on Russia to take its uranium that was spent and reprocessed, as Russia has the only plant in the world that carries out the operation of converting the reprocessed uranium. It undergoes conversion and re-enrichment, with 10 percent sent back to France according to Greenpeace. They report that France’s EDF plans to use reprocessed uranium at its 1300 MWe reactors. Between 1994 and 2013, they report 600 tonnes were used in the four reactors of Cruas-Meysse.
Greenpeace says it protested the shipments in 2022, leading the French government in September 2022 to halt the trade. It had only been resumed in 2021 after previously being halted in 2010. Orano, which supports the nuclear industry, EDF, and Rosatom, are reported to participate in the trade, which sees reprocessed material sent to Russia and a portion returned for re-use in France.
“Emmanuel Macron repeatedly states the need to develop our economic, technological, industrial, and financial independence, particularly from Russia, which he describes as a threat to France and Europe,” said Pauline Boyer, nuclear campaign manager for Greenpeace France. The group points out, however, that the resumption of URT shipments to Russia represents a “disconnect between the French President’s words and actions.”
They are calling for France to report the quantity of reprocessed uranium exported to Russia since 2022, as well as intervening to stop the exports. They are demanding a termination of all import and export contracts.
Greenpeace believe that France has quietly continued the trade because it has massive stockpiles, approximately 35,000 tonnes of reprocessed uranium in warehouses. They believe the underlying objective is to dispose of cumbersome stockpiles of radioactive waste, noting that 90 percent becomes stored waste.
Greenpeace believes that among the future sanctions being discussed for Russia’s energy trade would include blocks on Rosatom’s nuclear trade. It says they are being considered in addition to the continuing blocks on Russian gas and oil. However, they want France to move more aggressively to end the trade immediately.
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