It turned out that France was trading uranium with Russia despite EU embargoes.

According to the news of the weekly satirical magazine Canard Enchaine, based on the customs documents of the EDF company, which is the main energy provider in France, which has 84 percent of the state, France bought 290 tons of uranium worth 345 million euros from Russia in the first 9 months of 2022. .

This amount corresponds to about 30 percent of France's uranium reserves, and about three times the uranium bought from Russia in 2021.

It is stated that France, with 24 of its 56 nuclear reactors under maintenance, imported the uranium from Russia during the energy crisis for electricity generation from nuclear power plants.

THE REASON FOR THE TRADE IS THAT RUSSIAN URANIUM IS CHEAP

EDF, which uses 1030 enriched uranium annually in nuclear power plants for electricity generation, needs to process 8 thousand tons of natural uranium in order to obtain this value.

Despite the embargoes of European countries targeting Russia, the reason why France buys uranium from this country behind the scenes is shown as the cheaper supply of Russian uranium.

The uranium purchased by France from Kazakhstan, which has a 43 percent share in uranium imports, must also pass through Russia for enrichment processes.

DESPITE EU, FRANCE PERGETS "RUSSIAN EMBARGO"

It was noteworthy that the EDF's questions about uranium imports, which emerged with the customs documents and drew reaction, were dismissed by the French Energy Minister Agnes Pannier-Runacher by responding that "they buy uranium not as raw material, but as enriched".

It is also stated that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz put pressure on France to stop buying natural and enriched uranium from Russia.

Environmentalist non-governmental organization Greenpeace announced that a ship carrying uranium from Russia to France finally approached Dunkirk Port on November 29, and it was scandalous that the Paris administration made this trade despite the embargoes adopted by the European Union (EU) and international environmental agreements. had called it.

Paris authorities also left the questions of the international press unanswered at the first stage.