This project involves the production of nuclear fuel at a plant in Lingen, near the border with the Netherlands, and involves the arrival of Russian specialists and equipment.
Published 07/22/2026, 17:34.
Updated 07/22/2026, 18:08.
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Portal of the Framatome plant in Lingen (Germany), April 14, 2023, created for the production of fuel assemblies for nuclear power plants in Eastern Europe. (LARS KLEMMER/DPA/AFP)
This is a controversial project due to Russian involvement. The German region of Lower Saxony on Wednesday, July 22, allowed ANF, a subsidiary of the French company Framatome, to produce nuclear fuel in cooperation with the Russian state group Rosatom.
The Russian state is accused by the German government of carrying out “hybrid war” including espionage, infrastructure sabotage and disinformation. Thus, allowing Moscow to participate in a project to produce nuclear fuel on German territory has caused numerous criticisms, but the German authorities cannot prohibit this in the absence of European sanctions.
Production of the fuel will take place at a plant in Lingen, near the Dutch border, and will involve Russian specialists and equipment, heightening national security concerns. For the project’s defenders, this is about ensuring long-term supplies to Europe of the still operating nuclear power plants of the Russian-Soviet project.
Russia remains a key player in the world’s nuclear power industry, so much so that several countries, led by France, are interested in partnership. “When all necessary conditions are met and the identified risks can be sufficiently controlled thanks to appropriate measures and requirements imposed by the authorities, they are obliged to issue a permit,” explained the German Ministry of the Environment.
He emphasized that “if new risks are identified”especially “in matters of national security”permission may be revised. The continuation of this trade, despite the war in Ukraine, has been regularly condemned since the beginning of the conflict, in particular by Greenpeace.