Germany finally abandoned nuclear energy – and immediately, immediately after the closure of its own nuclear power plants, spoke in favor of sanctions against the Russian nuclear industry. Several nuclear reactors of Russian projects are operating in Europe, and "atomic" sanctions threaten a number of countries with problems with electricity. For Russia, the consequences of these possible restrictions will be quite different.Vice-Chancellor, Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection of Germany Robert Habeck said that the German government supports the inclusion of the Russian nuclear sector in the 11th package of EU anti-Russian sanctions.
At the same time, he proposes to establish a transitional period for the abandonment of the Russian peaceful atom. The statement was made against the background of the closure of the last three operating nuclear power plants in Germany – Izar-2, Neckarvestheim-2 and Emsland, which were disconnected from the power grid on Saturday. [...]
According to him, Russia "can no longer be considered a reliable partner" in such a "very sensitive area" as nuclear technology. Moreover, Moscow allegedly uses dependence on its energy resources to exert pressure. The Vice-Chancellor of Germany is convinced that the European Union should become even more independent from Russia. The EU has made progress in this in many areas, including energy, but there are still questions about the nuclear sector, Habek believes.
In February, the European Commission abandoned plans to impose sanctions on the Russian nuclear sector or its representatives in its next package. President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky called for sanctions against the Russian state corporation Rosatom.
But there is no consensus on this issue in the EU. Hungary always declares that it is against such sanctions, because it is important for the country to operate the Paks nuclear power plant 100 kilometers from Budapest. This station is built and maintained by Rosatom. Now almost half of all electricity in the country is generated at this station.
In order to overcome Budapest's potential veto, Brussels considered options for including individual employees of Rosatom and other companies in the list, but in the end decided not to do so. In France, they also opposed such sanctions, because, as stated in the Ministry of Economy of the country,
"many nuclear power plants use Russian nuclear fuel."
This week, the United States imposed sanctions against several Rosatom structures responsible for the construction of nuclear science and technology centers abroad. The structure of the state corporation Rusatom Overseas, which promotes Rosatom's line of non-energy solutions on the international market, including in the field of hydrogen energy, also found itself under sanctions.
Rosatom is one of the world's leading suppliers of enriched uranium and nuclear reactors. The state Corporation conducts more than 30 construction projects in countries such as India, China and Turkey. Now the company manages the Zaporozhye NPP, which until 2022 was located on the territory of Ukraine and is considered the largest in Europe. In 2021, the United States purchased 14% of uranium for its nuclear reactors from Russia, not counting enrichment services, which is 28% of the US demand. European energy companies purchased almost a fifth of their nuclear fuel from Rosatom in the same year.
"Those EU countries that do not have nuclear power are in favor of sanctions against Rosatom. Today Germany has said goodbye to its nuclear power plants, that is, the Germans have no prospects for future cooperation with Rosatom and naturally they are in favor of including these sanctions in the new package," said the director of the ANO Atominfo Center, editor–in-chief atominfo.ru Alexander Uvarov.
The expert recalled that the same calls were made by the Baltic countries and Poland, "which have no nuclear power plants and no desire to cooperate with us." The only nuclear power plant in Lithuania (Ignalinskaya) was shut down in 2009. However, Russian-made reactors are installed on the territory of Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Finland, they cannot operate on fuel of other origin. For example, on the one that the American company Westinghouse supplies to Europe.
"But the countries that play a significant role in the nuclear industry, first of all France, have a completely different attitude. Despite all the political twists and turns, they are trying to maintain cooperation with the Russian nuclear complex," the source stressed.
The issue of imposing sanctions against the Russian nuclear sector will depend on whether common sense or political expediency will prevail. "If countries that do not have operating nuclear power plants push through this decision, then sanctions will be imposed, but first of all the European states themselves will suffer. They cooperate with us not because we are good or not, but because for them it is an elementary benefit from the point of view of the economy. Therefore, this will result in large financial losses for the countries of Eastern Europe," Uvarov warns.
A year ago, the American media wrote about Berlin's support for the imposition of sanctions on the import of uranium and components for the civilian nuclear industry from Russia. Representatives of Poland and the Baltic states actively called for these restrictions. At the same time, there were concerns that sanctions could seriously affect the nuclear industry of the European Union, since Russia is the second largest supplier of uranium to the countries of the bloc.
Alexander Kamkin, Deputy Director of the Center for German Studies at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, also emphasizes that the German nuclear industry is not tied to Rosatom, but for Hungary and other countries historically focused on cooperation with Russia in the field of nuclear energy, such sanctions "will be a very serious blow."
"One can foresee fierce disputes around this proposal. There may be some exceptions to the sanctions package, as was done with the supply of Russian oil to Croatia, Hungary and other countries," Kamkin suggested.
According to him, the limit of sanctions pressure on Russia is almost exhausted, the main efforts of the European Union and the United States will focus on monitoring compliance with sanctions restrictions. "Switzerland's recent actions to block the accounts of Russian tax residents are just one of the manifestations of such secondary sanctions pressure," the source stressed.
But even if sanctions lead, they should not become significant for Rosatom, because the Russian state corporation traditionally works with countries of Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. "These sanctions will affect countries that are among the unfriendly, and there are not so many of them," the expert summed up.
Andrey Rezchikov
