French minister launches inquiry into claims that EDF 'dumped' uranium
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TV investigators alleged to have filmed spent fuel from French energy giant's nuclear reactors in metal containers in Siberia
A lorry transporting nuclear waste with low radioactivity, La Hague, France Photograph: Olivier Laban-mattei/AFP
France's ecology minister today called for an inquiry into reports that EDF, the world's biggest nuclear reactor operator, is storing hundreds of tonnes of depleted uranium in open-air sites in Siberia.
According to a documentary due to be broadcast on the Arte channel tonight, 13% of the spent fuel from the utility giant's French nuclear reactors is shipped to Russia and left there indefinitely in metal containers.
Environmentalists say the material – the result of nuclear reprocessing – is proof that the industry's claims to be almost entirely "recyclable" are misleading.
But EDF, which bought British Energy in a £12.5bn deal last year and recently announced plans to build four more nuclear reactors in the UK, insists that the material stored near the Siberian town of Seversk is being kept securely for future use. It says it deals with all its toxic waste safely within French borders at the La Hague storage facility in Normandy.
"It is only the recyclable uranium which is transported to Russia to be enriched," the firm said in a written statement, adding that the arrangement was carried out within "the framework of commercial agreements" in several countries including Russia and the Netherlands.
Speaking on French radio this morning, junior minister for ecology Chantal Jouanno said an inquiry was necessary in order to "confirm or reject" the allegations. "We cannot allow the slightest possibility of suspicion that there is a problem," she said. "It has to be completely transparent."
Environmentalists have long complained that the nuclear industry, which provides most of France's energy needs, is shrouded in secrecy. EDF says that reprocessing – a chemical operation during which "useful" fuel is separated from highly radioactive waste in order to be sent back and used again - provides a "clean" low-carbon energy source.
But many experts say that the actual reuse rate is far lower than the 96% claimed by the industry because much of the uranium is so depleted at the end of the reprocessing that it is almost completely useless.
"This product is polluting and it contains very little uranium 235 [an isotope necessary for nuclear energy]," Vladimir Tchouprov, head of Greenpeace Russia's energy campaign, told Libération. "It's a real pain to use. For us, it is final waste."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/oct/13/edf-nuclear-waste-france-russia |
