German Environmental Group Sues Lower Saxony Over Rosatom-Linked Nuclear Fuel Permit
BUND Niedersachsen has sued Lower Saxony to overturn approval for expanding the Lingen nuclear fuel plant, citing procedural errors and security risks from Rosatom's involvement.
A German environmental group has filed a lawsuit against the state of Lower Saxony, seeking to overturn its approval for the expansion of a nuclear fuel plant in the northern town of Lingen. The project involves a subsidiary of France's Framatome producing nuclear fuel rods under a licensing agreement with Russia's state-backed Rosatom.
The group, BUND Niedersachsen, is acting in collaboration with the anti-nuclear organisation .ausgestrahlt. The case has been brought before the upper administrative court in Lueneburg.
Lower Saxony's environment ministry, acting with guidance from the federal environment ministry, granted the permit subject to certain conditions. The approval was issued despite political concerns over Russia's war in Ukraine, with authorities stating there was no legal basis for rejection.
BUND argues that the permit resulted from procedural errors and poses a security risk due to Rosatom's role. The group contends that the environmental screening relied on outdated documents and that Rosatom's involvement was not fully disclosed in the filings.
"Because both manufacturing in Lingen and parts of quality control are carried out with machines supplied by Rosatom, production and inspection could be manipulated," said Olaf Bandt, chair of BUND Germany, in a statement.
Berlin has said it views the cooperation critically but maintains the decision was made in accordance with relevant German nuclear laws. The federal government has indicated that the appropriate instrument to address such concerns would need to be part of EU-wide sanctions.
Rosatom and the state of Lower Saxony did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Framatome has described the collaboration as an interim step to help customers operating Russian-designed reactors diversify away from direct Russian purchases until it develops its own production technology.