France Arrests Greenpeace Protestors Blocking Arrival of Cargo Ship
Activists from the group Greenpeace France took to kayaks and Zodiacs on Monday morning, March 2, while others chained themselves to a lock gate in Dunkirk to block the arrival of a cargo ship they said was carrying uranium. French police ended the protest and took four individuals into custody after about four hours.
The protestors gathered at the lock leading into the Port of Dunkirk to once again call attention to their demands that France end its imports of uranium from Russia and involvement with Rosatom. The protest was timed to the upcoming World Nuclear Summit in Paris on March 10 and renewed earlier demands from the organization also seeking to end the trade and sanction Rosatom.
The Panama-flagged cargo ship Mikhail Dudin (3,000 dwt) was due to arrive from Saint Petersburg. According to the Greenpeace protestors, the ship was likely carrying enriched or natural uranium to be delivered to the French power company EDF and its subsidiaries.
A total of approximately 20 protestors were in front of the lock gate or chained to the gate. They were displaying signs calling for EDF to stop the imports and alleging that the trade indirectly supports Russia’s war in Ukraine. They are calling for transparency on the trade and for EDF to terminate its contracts with Rosatom.
Greenpeace contends it was able to track at least 20 trips by the cargo ship between Russia and France over the past four years since the war started in Ukraine. A second cargo ship, Baltiyskiy, they contend, has also made another 15 trips in the past four years. The French news agency supported the claims with information that France imported at least 112 tonnes of enriched uranium and its compounds from Russia. It writes that the imports account for a quarter of the total purchases by volume, and while the volumes declined between 2022 and 2024, imports have been stable for the past two years.
EDF is reported to be honoring a contract it entered into with Rosatom in 2018. The Russians are reported to be the only plant in the world capable of taking France’s used uranium from its nuclear power plants and reprocessing it. There has been talk that has not proceeded that France might build its own plant for the process. Currently, France depends on the Russians to reprocess the uranium by converting it and then re-enriching it for reuse in the power plants.
While the EU has introduced a broad range of sanctions against Russia over the past four years, the nuclear power sector has not been impacted. Greenpeace alleges that France is obstructing sanctions against Rosatom and is calling for France to instead work to include it among the sanctioned trades.
that matters most
Get the latest maritime news delivered to your inbox daily.
Last November, Greenpeace released pictures of barrels being loaded on the same cargo ship in the French port, which it said were being exported to Russia for reprocessing. It contends the trade had been suspected but resumed in 2021, but at its prompting, the French government in 2022 promised to end the trade.
French police took four of the individuals into custody this morning, while the others left after making their point. By 0900, the port resumed normal operations, and the cargo ship was able to dock.
Content Original Link:
" target="_blank">
