Germany has approved the expansion of a nuclear fuel plant in Lingen to manufacture fuel elements for Russian-designed reactors, in a joint project involving French nuclear group Framatome and Russia's state-owned Rosatom.
The Lower Saxony environment ministry granted operator Advanced Nuclear Fuels, a Framatome subsidiary, permission under strict conditions including a ban on access for employees of Rosatom and its subsidiary TVEL, external inspections of Russian equipment and software, and full manipulation checks on fuel rods supplied from Russia. The state government was legally unable to refuse the application, as federal authorities found no sufficient risk of espionage or sabotage.
Lower Saxony's environment minister, Christian Meyer, condemned the cooperation as politically misguided. Rosatom has been exempted from European Union sanctions imposed after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.