France, Uranium

Posted: 24th February 2022

As the Ukraine crisis continues to push fuel prices up, France’s championing of nuclear power as a way of ensuring its energy sovereignty sounds great. But a group of researchers says it’s a red herring given France imports all its uranium. Production of nuclear power relies on uranium – a metal ore found in rocks, and in seawater, in many parts of the world. When France first developed nuclear following the 1973 oil crisis, it produced some of its own uranium – reaching a peak of 2,634 tonnes in 1980. But by the end of the 1990s, France stopped building new plants and its last uranium mine was closed in 2001. Of the 138,230 tonnes of uranium imported between 2005 and 2020 official Euratom data shows three quarters came from just four countries: Kazakhstan (27,7France has control over its uranium supplies because they’re not concentrated in one region of the world according to French nuclear group Orano (formerly Areva). Moreover, 44 percent of the uranium comes from OECD countries its director general Phillipe Knoche said. But a group of French researchers and specialists say France’s reliance on imported uranium “poses a serious challenge to the idea that nuclear power allows France to ensure its energy independence”. In an open letter published in Le Monde daily on Tuesday they write: “We are as dependent on foreign countries for uranium as we are for gas and oil.” “France’s energy independence is a red herring, it’s utopian,” socio-anthropologist Eric Hahonou, one of the signatories, told RFI.48 tonnes), Australia (25,804 tonnes), Niger (24,787) and Uzbekistan (22,197).