Lower Saxony's environment minister, Christian Meyer, has come out against a plan for the Lingen plant to make fuel assemblies under a Russian licence for Bulgaria and four other countries. A Framatome spokesman said today that the company already has final confirmation of the wider permit.
The plant belongs to Advanced Nuclear Fuels (ANF), a subsidiary of French firm Framatome. ANF plans to make assemblies for Russian-designed reactors under a licence from TVEL, the nuclear fuel arm of Russia's state corporation Rosatom. The site is due to be adapted for customers in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Finland.
Meyer's ministry licenses and oversees the plant. It issued the permit for higher output in July. Officials in Lower Saxony said then that, despite political objections, they had no legal grounds to refuse the licence.
Meyer criticised the federal government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz for not doing more to stop the project. He said he is surprised that Berlin sees no change in the security situation. In his view, the problem is "the fact that the whole federal government, led by Chancellor Merz, accepts without concern the cooperation with the Russian nuclear corporation in Lingen".
The federal environment ministry also opposes cooperation with Rosatom, but wants the EU to settle the issue. A ministry spokesman pointed to EU-wide sanctions, including on the nuclear sector, as a tool. "So far, most member states do not back such a step," he said.
German environmental group BUND will ask a court to suspend the permit for now, until its complaint against the project is heard. The group says Rosatom's role poses a security risk.
Rosatom replied that it is not a party to the case and the plant is not its own, so questions should go to ANF and its shareholders.
In December 2022, Bulgaria's Kozloduy nuclear plant and Framatome signed a deal to supply fresh nuclear fuel for Unit 6. The contract is part of the plant's effort to diversify its fuel supply.