Europe’s largest nuclear companies are attempting to cultivate the image that they are clean, sustainable and a solution to the challenge of climate change. In reality they create insurmountable problems not least the generation of large volumes of hazardous of nuclear waste. This report summarises the secretive attempts of the European nuclear industry to solve one of their largest waste problems, by exporting and dumping uranium wastes in the Russian Federation.

These nuclear wastes are a combination of contaminated uranium (Repu) resulting from reprocessing at the Cogema/Areva facilities at la Hague, Normandy, and depleted uranium (DU) resulting from enrichment at facilities in France (Eurodif/Areva de Pierrelatte), and the Urenco facilities in Germany (Gronau), the Netherlands (Almelo) and the UK (Capenhurst). Every year of nuclear power plant operation with its associated uranium enrichment and reprocessing operations produce thousands of tons more of uranium waste.

Reprocessing and enrichment operations are conducted for Europe’s large nuclear electricity generating companies – Electricity de France (eDF), EoN, RWE, British Energy, EPZ, Vatenfall, Electrabel, Iberdrola and others throughout Europe as well as overseas. In total hundreds of thousands of tons of waste uranium have been generated at these facilities. In France, over 16000 tons of Repu, and over 220 000 tons of enrichment waste DU have been produced. The volumes are continuing to increase each year.

Understandably the nuclear industry has not been transparent about their nuclear waste dumping operations. A great deal of information remains undisclosed. However, from the information obtained from official sources, and from research conducted by Greenpeace and the important work of Wise-Amsterdam, an estimated total of uranium waste exported by the European nuclear industry to Russia during the last 30 years is between 100 000 and 200 000 tons.

That the European nuclear industry is dumping large volumes of dangerous nuclear waste in Russia is shocking itself. But there are other factors that make this activity even more pernicious:
  - Claims that the uranium is processed for manufacture into fuel are incorrect, with only a very small fraction of exported uranium returned to Europe;
  - The waste is exported to some of Russia’s most contaminated sites, with long-standing and major environmental and human health problems;
  - Russian law does not permit the importation of nuclear waste for either storage or disposal, as such the exports are illegal under Russian Law;
  - The nuclear waste is transported in most cases in the form of uranium hexafluoride a hazardous material that reacts violently with water;
  - Nuclear industry tests have demonstrated that HEX containers fail fire tests in less than 3 minutes leading to release of hazardous uranium gas;
  - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has failed to impose stricter standards on the industry;
- Shipments between west European ports are regular transiting through the North Sea, Skagarak, Baltic and Gulf of Finland before arriving at St Petersburg are made on non-purpose built general Russian-owned cargo vessels, despite the known hazards and risks posed by uranium HEX transports.

The nuclear industry is not sustainable at many levels, and the dumping of nuclear waste in Russia is another example of why it should have no future. These and other issues require urgent attention by all concerned parties in Europe and Russia.

how eDF and European nuclear utilities are dumping nuclear waste in the Russian Federation (PDF)

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