The French state electricity company EDF is facing a significant legal confrontation over its continued reliance on Russia for the processing of nuclear fuel. Greenpeace France has issued a formal notice to the utility, marking the latest escalation in a long-standing campaign to force transparency regarding the environmental, health, and human rights impacts of France’s nuclear supply chain.
The dispute centers on the “reprocessed uranium” (RepU) cycle. In 2022, shortly after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, revelations emerged that EDF was shipping spent nuclear fuel to the Seversk facility in Siberia. Seversk, part of the Russian state nuclear group Rosatom’s empire, remains the only site in the world capable of converting this specific type of reprocessed uranium for reuse in French power plants. While pressure from the French government briefly halted these exports, Greenpeace disclosed in November 2025 that shipments had resumed through the port of Dunkirk, effectively bypassing the broader international effort to decouple from the Russian energy sector.
Greenpeace is now leveraging France’s 2017 “corporate duty of vigilance” law to challenge EDF. This legislation mandates that large French corporations identify and mitigate serious risks to human rights, health, safety, and the environment caused by their global activities. According to the NGO, EDF’s 2024 and 2025 vigilance plans are legally insufficient, as they allegedly omit the significant hazards posed by operations at Seversk.
“EDF cannot simultaneously publicly promote its uranium cycle as part of the circular economy while glossing over the environmental, health and human impacts of that cycle – including those occurring abroad,” said Roger Spautz, an energy transition campaigner for Greenpeace France.
The environmental concerns are rooted in the history of the Siberian facility. Greenpeace points to chronic issues at the site, including a major radioactive release during an explosion in 1993, and claims that approximately 90 percent of the material sent there from France remains on-site as radioactive waste. Furthermore, the NGO highlights the potential for severe health and safety risks to the workers tasked with the dangerous conversion process.
The legal challenge also touches upon the broader geopolitical ethics of France’s nuclear policy. Greenpeace argues that EDF is failing to account for human rights violations tied to Rosatom’s conduct in occupied Ukraine. Specifically, reports from the International Labour Organization have detailed instances of forced labor, coercion, and workplace safety violations at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant under Russian control.
“By leaving these activities in its blind spot, EDF is failing to meet its obligations under the duty of vigilance,” said Charlotte Rohmer, a legal expert at Greenpeace France. The organization has given EDF three months to address the deficiencies in its risk assessments. Should the company fail to provide a satisfactory response, Greenpeace has indicated it will take the matter to the Paris Judicial Court.
The issue of dependency on Russia for nuclear services presents a difficult contradiction for the French government. While President Emmanuel Macron has championed nuclear power as a cornerstone of France’s strategic autonomy and a means to achieve European energy security, the nation continues to rely on logistics networks involving Russia for the transport of natural uranium from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, in addition to the processing contracts in Siberia.
At the World Nuclear Summit in Paris earlier this year, President Macron acknowledged the need to diversify nuclear fuel supplies to break free from Russian influence. However, the path to decoupling remains complex. For now, the legal action brought by Greenpeace highlights the friction between the state’s drive for domestic energy independence and the practical realities of a global supply chain that remains inextricably linked to the Russian nuclear industry.
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