Germany should block plant making parts for Russian reactors, state minister says

​A nuclear fuel plant in Germany ​should not start producing components for ‌Russian-made reactors, ​a local state minister said on Wednesday, while Berlin said EU sanctions would be needed to block the plan. Advanced Nuclear Fuels (ANF), ‌a subsidiary of France's Framatome, plans to produce the parts in Lingen, Lower Saxony, under licence from TVEL, the fuel division of Russian state-owned nuclear firm Rosatom.

Christian Meyer, state environment minister, whose ministry is ‌responsible for licensing and regulating the plant, criticised Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government for not ‌doing more to block the move. "The fact that the entire federal government under Chancellor Merz accepts cooperation with Russia's nuclear corporation in Lingen without concern and sees no changed security situation surprises me greatly," Meyer said in a statement.

The ⁠federal environment ​ministry reiterated its ⁠opposition to cooperation with Rosatom but said addressing concerns over the Russian company required action at the European level. "The ⁠appropriate instrument to deal with this is EU-wide sanctions, including for the nuclear sector. So far, a ​majority of member states has not supported this," a spokesperson said.

Environmental group BUND said ⁠on Tuesday it planned to seek an emergency court order against a decision allowing the project to proceed while judges ⁠review ​a lawsuit challenging its approval. A Framatome spokesperson said the company had received final confirmation of the licence extension for fuel production at Lingen and would begin adapting the facility ⁠to manufacture fuel assemblies for customers in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Finland.

Rosatom said it ⁠was not involved ⁠in the legal proceedings and noted that the Lingen plant was not a Rosatom facility. It referred questions about the project's operations to ANF ‌and its shareholders.