Rosatom — Putin’s Geopolitical Arm

The French energy corporation Framatome operates the German nuclear fuel facility in Lingen through its subsidiary Advanced Nuclear Fuels. Two years ago, the state-owned French energy company EDF attempted to collaborate with the similarly state-owned Russian nuclear energy group Rosatom in a joint fuel element production venture, but those plans were scuttled following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Framatome launched this joint venture in France, but still intends to produce fuel elements for Soviet-designed nuclear power plants in Lingen, Eastern Germany, with Russian help. Franza Drechsel of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and Horst Hamm of the Nuclear-Free Future Foundation spoke with scientist Vladimir Slivyak (pictured above left) and anti-nuclear campaigner Matthias Eickhoff (pictured above right) about why French state-owned companies are enriching Russian uranium on German soil and what implications it has for the environment, the energy grid, and European geopolitics.

Vladimir Slivyak, originally from Russia, is the winner of the Alternative Nobel Prize, the Right Livelihood Award. Matthias Eickhoff is the spokesperson for the Aktionsbündnis Münsterland gegen Atomanlagen (Münsterland Action Alliance against Nuclear Plants).

Read the interview