No nuclear-fuel-cooperation Framatome/Rosatom in Lingen

Stop nuclear fuel production – shut down nuclear installations!

In February 2021 the French nuclear company Framatome announced plans to create a Joint Venture with the Russian nuclear company Rosatom in Lingen (Emsland, Lower Saxony, Germany) in order to produce nuclear fuel rods. In Lingen the only nuclear fuel production facility in Germany is in operation. It delivers nuclear fuel to high risk reactors in Belgium, France, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, Sweden and Finnland. Framatome is a subsidiary of the nearly entirely state-owned French nuclear company EdF. Rosatom is state-owned in Russia – in Lingen its subsidiary TVEL is tasked to get active.

As early as in March 2021 the German Federal Monopolies and Mergers Office greenlighted the Joint Venture – a political decision by the German government in Berlin was not taken at that point of time. The government declared all relevant information to be secret after several MPs asked for this information. However, the news outlet "Der Spiegel" reported in April that that the Rosatom-subsidiary shall get a 25% share of the Joint Venture in Lingen.

We demand that the French and Russian governments step back immediately from this nuclear cooperation in Germany. We expect President Macron and President Putin to respect the exit from nuclear energy in Germany. This means, that the nuclear fuel facilitiy in Lingen has to be shut completely instead of keeping it open artificially through this new Joint Venture.

We also call on the German Federal Government to stop this nuclear cooperation and to start the shutdown of the nuclear fuel facility in Lingen. Right now this nuclear fuel facility is together with the uranium enrichment plan in neighbouring Gronau the only German nuclear installation that is exempt from the official shutdown of the nuclear industry at the end of 2022. Since the nuclear catastrophe of Fukushima the nuclear fuel facility in Lingen has not operated at full capacity, because more and more aging reactors have to be shut down. Now there is the real threat, that Lingen will become a French-Russian nuclear hub for the supply of nuclear fuel to more aging nuclear power stations in a number of European countries.

We fear that the cooperation between Framatome and Rosatom will lead to an outsourcing of parts of the Russian nuclear fuel production to Germany – among other reasons to circumvent stinging EU-sanctions in the nuclear sector. Rosatom is also involved in military nuclear projects. French president Macron publically calls for a stricter regime against Russia – however, in the nuclear sector he opens the EU-doors willingly to Rosatom. That the German government is playing along in this hypocrital nuclear game, is both incomprehensible and inacceptable.

Framatome and Rosatom are also trying to revitalize the long failed plans to build a nuclear power station in Belene/Bulgaria. The German Framatome facility in Erlangen (Bavaria) is supposed to play a part in this horror plan. France and Russia are forming an alliance to spearhead the nuclear expansion in Europe. We believe this is irresponsible.

Furthermore we demand that Germany, France and Russia sign no more deals concerning uranium enrichment – be it enriched uranium or depleted uranium waste that is being exported to Russia for long-term open-air storage in so-called "Closed Cities".

We agree that Europe urgently needs a process of de-nuclearization. This entails without any question the shutdown of all nuclear installations in Germany, France and Russia. Therefore we are vehemently against any deal that can lead to a prolongation of the nuclear age. Nuclear energy is extremely dangerous and no help in the international effort to protect our climate. The future of Europe shall be based solely on renewable energies. All efforts must be channeled into this process.

 

This declaration is supported by (as of 25 May 2021):

 11 maart beweging, Belgien
Aktionsbündnis Münsterland gegen Atomanlagen
Aktionsbündnis "Stop Westcastor" Jülich
AntiAtom Bonn
AntiAtom-Bündnis Niederrhein
AntiAtom-fuku, Düsseldorf
Anti-Atom-Gruppe Freiburg
Arbeitsgemeinschaft Schacht Konrad
Arbeitskreis Umwelt (AKU) Gronau
Arbeitskreis Umwelt (AKU) Schüttorf
Bayern Allianz für Atomausstieg und Klimaschutz
Beyond Nuclear
BUND (Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland), Bundesverband
BUND, Landesverband Bayern
BUND, Landesverband Niedersachsen
BUND, Landesverband Nordrhein-Westfalen
BUND, Regionalgruppe Münsterland
BUND, Regionalverband Südlicher Oberrhein
BUND, Kreisgruppe Borken
BUND, Kreisgruppe Emsland
BUND, Kreisgruppe Grafschaft Bentheim
BUND, Kreisgruppe Münster
BUND, Kreisgruppe Steinfurt
Bundesverband Bürgerinitiativen Umweltschutz (BBU)
Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Kreisverband Emsland
Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Kreisverband Grafschaft Bentheim
Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Ortsverband Emsland Mitte
Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Ortsverband Emsland Süd
Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, Ortsverband Gronau
Bündnis für Atomausstieg und erneuerbare Energien Regensburg
Bure Zone Libre, Frankreich
Bürgerinitiative "Kein Atommüll in Ahaus"
Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz Hamm
Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz Lüchow-Dannenberg
Bürgerinitiative Zukunft ohne Atom, Waldshut-Tiengen
Comité Régional d'information sur le Nucléaire, Region Pays de la Loire, Frankreich
ContrAtom
CSFR (Comité pour la Sauvegarde de Fessenheim et de la Plaine du Rhin), Frankreich
Delfina e. V.
Die Linke, Landesverband NRW
Die Linke, Kreisverband Emsland
Die Linke, Kreisverband Wendland
Die Linke, Kreisverband Steinfurt
Don't Nuke the Climate
Emder Friedensforum
Enschede voor Vrede, Niederlande
Elternverein Restrisiko Emsland
Fossil Free Münster
Grün-Alternative Liste (GAL) Gronau
Grup de Científics i Tècnics per un Futur No Nuclear, Katalonien
Initiative 3 Rosen, Aachen
International Socio-Ecological Union, Russland
IPPNW (Internationale Ärzte für die Verhütung des Atomkriegs – Ärzte in sozialer Verantwortung), Sektion Deutschland
IPPNW / PSR, Sektion Schweiz
Klimabündnis Hamm
LAKA Foundation, Amsterdam, Niederlande
Nature of Siberia, Region Krasnojarsk, Russland
Naturschutzbund Salzburg, Österreich
Natur- und Umweltschutzverein (NUG) Gronau
Nuclear Free Future Foundation, München
Plattform gegen Atomgefahren (PLAGE) Salzburg, Österreich
"Program against nuclear and radiological threats", Russian Socio-Ecological Union, Russland
Public Council of the southern coast of the Finnish Gulf, St. Petersburg, Russland
Rhȏne-Alpes sans Nucléaire, Frankreich
Sayonara Nukes Düsseldorf
Schweinfurter Aktionsbündnis gegen Atomkraft (SWAB)
Schweizerische Energie-Stiftung (SES), Zürich, Schweiz
SOFA (Sofortiger Atomausstieg) Münster
Sortir du nucléaire Isère, Frankreich
Sortir du nucléaire Paris, Frankreich
Sortir du nucléaire Suisse, Schweiz
Students for Future, Münster
Umweltforum Münster
Umweltinstitut München
Vrouwen voor Vrede Enschede, Niederlande
WISE, Niederlande

Statement "No to joint venture Framatome Rosatom" (224.7 KiB)

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