Russia's nuclear trade flows with France, imports continue in EU despite Ukraine war

While the European Union agreed to curtail its use of Russian oil and gas, its member nations continue to import and export nuclear fuel that is not under EU sanctions - to the chagrin of the Ukrainian government and environmental activists. A cargo ship carrying uranium that departed from the French port of Dunkirk traveled the North Sea on Thursday, heading toward the Russian Baltic port of Ust-Luga.

It was the third time in just over a month that the Panama-flagged Mikhail Dudin ship docked in Dunkirk to transport uranium. Environmental group Greenpeace France denounced the ongoing shipments to and from Russia and called for an end to all trade in nuclear fuel. The EU's executive arm, the European Commission, did not propose targeting Russia's nuclear sector in its latest sanctions package presented Wednesday.

"France ensures strict compliance by economic players with all the European sanctions adopted against Russia. Civil nuclear power is not affected by these sanctions," the French Foreign Affairs Ministry told the Associated Press.

Ukraine, meanwhile, is pushing for European sanctions in that area. According to Greenpeace France, reprocessed uranium meant to be transported to Russia was loaded onto the Mikhail Dudin on Wednesday. A video provided by the environmental group shows a crane lifting containers onto the ship.

"Despite the war, we can see that this trade between the French nuclear industry and the Russian nuclear industry, Rosatom, continues as if nothing had happened," said Pauline Boyer, an energy campaigner at Greenpeace France.

French authorities have repeatedly said the country does not depend on Russia to supply the nuclear power plants that provide 67% of its electricity — more than any other nation.

Greenpeace France said a shipment of Russian uranium that an Associated Press reporter saw getting unloaded in Dunkirk earlier this month was transported by trucks to a plant in Lingen, Germany. The Lingen plant is operated by Framatome, which is majority-owned by French utility giant EDF.

At the end of last month, enriched uranium unloaded from the Mikhail Dudin in Dunkirk was destined for the Rhone valley in southern France, which is home to major sites of the French civil nuclear industry, according to Greenpeace France. The French nuclear sector has a series of contracts with Russian state-controlled energy giant Rosatom, including some to import enriched uranium destined for European nuclear power plants and to export reprocessed uranium to Russia. Rosatom is one of the world's biggest actors in the nuclear energy market.