Nearly four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, uranium trade between France and Russia continues largely uninterrupted. While the European Union has imposed sweeping sanctions on Russian oil, gas, and coal, nuclear fuel and related services remain conspicuously absent from EU sanctions packages. As a result, France—Europe’s most nuclear-dependent economy—remains structurally linked to Russia’s state-owned nuclear giant, Rosatom.
According to the anti-nuclear NGO Greenpeace, this ongoing trade highlights a blind spot in Europe’s sanctions regime and underscores how Russia continues to exert influence through the nuclear sector, even as it is diplomatically and economically isolated in other areas.
How Dependent Is France on Nuclear Power—and Why Does Uranium Matter?
France derives around 65–70 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, the highest share of any country in the world. The country operates 56 nuclear reactors, all managed by the state-owned utility EDF, making a stable supply of uranium and nuclear fuel services a matter of national energy security.
While France sources uranium ore from a diversified set of countries—including Kazakhstan, Niger, Uzbekistan, Canada, and Australia—the nuclear fuel cycle does not end with mining. Conversion, enrichment, fuel fabrication, and waste handling are critical steps, and it is in these downstream services that Russia retains significant leverage.
Rosatom, through its subsidiaries such as Tenex, controls an estimated 38–40 percent of global uranium enrichment capacity and roughly 20 percent of uranium conversion services worldwide. These stages are far harder to replace quickly than raw uranium supply.
Why Has Rosatom Escaped EU Sanctions?
Unlike hydrocarbons, nuclear cooperation has been treated as a “strategic exception” by Brussels. Several EU member states—particularly Hungary, Slovakia, Bulgaria, and the Czech Republic—operate Russian-designed reactors and depend almost entirely on Rosatom for fuel, maintenance, and technical support.
Sanctioning Rosatom would risk immediate power shortages in parts of Eastern and Central Europe, potentially cutting electricity supplies for tens of millions of people. This political reality has repeatedly stalled efforts to include nuclear cooperation in EU sanctions packages.
France, despite having its own nuclear industry and enrichment facilities through Orano, has also continued limited cooperation with Rosatom-linked entities, particularly in uranium conversion and enrichment contracts signed before 2022.
How Powerful Is Rosatom in the Global Nuclear Market?
Rosatom is not merely a fuel supplier—it is one of the most comprehensive nuclear conglomerates in the world. Of the roughly 440 nuclear reactors currently operating globally, around 80 are of Russian design, primarily VVER-type reactors.
Beyond reactor construction, Rosatom:
- Builds one-third of all new nuclear reactors under construction worldwide
- Supplies nuclear fuel to over 15 countries
- Oversees Russia’s entire nuclear weapons complex
- Employs more than 300,000 people
- Generated revenues exceeding $20 billion annually prior to the war
This dominance gives Moscow long-term geopolitical leverage, as nuclear contracts often span 40–60 years, locking countries into decades of technical and political dependence.
What Is the Link Between Rosatom and the War in Ukraine?
Rosatom’s role goes far beyond civilian energy. The company has been directly implicated in Russia’s military occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest nuclear facility, seized by Russian forces in March 2022.
International observers and Ukrainian officials have accused Rosatom personnel of participating in the plant’s militarization, undermining nuclear safety and violating international conventions. Despite this, Rosatom continues to operate freely in global markets, including within the EU.
Is France Trying to Reduce Its Exposure?
French nuclear firms, particularly Orano, have positioned themselves to benefit from a partial restructuring of the global nuclear market. Orano operates one of the world’s largest uranium conversion facilities in Malvési and is expanding enrichment capacity at its Georges Besse II plant in Tricastin.
However, scaling up these facilities takes time and investment. Industry analysts estimate that replacing Russian enrichment capacity in Europe alone could take 5–10 years and require billions of euros in new infrastructure.
In the meantime, France continues to navigate a contradiction: publicly championing Ukraine’s sovereignty while remaining indirectly tied to Russia through the nuclear fuel cycle.
What Risks Does This Pose for Europe?
The continued exemption of nuclear trade from sanctions exposes Europe to several long-term risks:
- Strategic vulnerability, as Russia retains leverage over critical energy infrastructure
- Political inconsistency, undermining the credibility of EU sanctions
- Moral hazard, as Rosatom profits despite its involvement in Ukraine
- Supply shocks, should Moscow weaponize nuclear fuel exports in the future
Greenpeace and other civil society groups warn that failing to address nuclear dependence now could leave Europe exposed to the same kind of coercion it experienced with gas before 2022.
Is Nuclear Europe’s Next Strategic Battleground?
As Europe accelerates its energy transition and reconsiders nuclear power as a low-carbon alternative, uranium and fuel-cycle dependencies are emerging as the next major fault line in EU–Russia relations.
While oil and gas ties have been dramatically severed, the nuclear sector remains an unresolved vulnerability—one where France sits at the center of a complex web of industrial capability, political compromise, and geopolitical risk.
