The Lower Saxony Ministry for the Environment, Energy & Climate Protection has granted approval to Advanced Nuclear Fuels (ANF), a subsidiary of the French state-owned energy company Framatome, to expand its fuel fabrication plant in Lingen, Germany. The decision allows the facility to produce hexagonal fuel assemblies for Soviet-designed VVER-1000 reactors under a licensing agreement with TVEL, Rosatom’s Fuel Division.
Despite intense political controversy and objections from environmental groups, the state (lander) authorities reluctantly stated they could find no legal grounds to reject the application, which had been approved by the German federal authorities.
However, to mitigate national security risks highlighted by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the approval mandates several strict protocols.
- Employees of Rosatom and TVEL are strictly barred from entering the Lingen facility. Access is only permitted in exceptional, justified cases, and personnel must be constantly accompanied by German nuclear regulatory inspectors.
- All software and equipment of Russian origin must be entirely isolated from the plant’s broader information technology infrastructure to block unauthorised data access or cyber threats.
- Any machinery and fuel components supplied by TVEL must pass separate, rigorous safety checks. Russian-fabricated gadolinium fuel rods face mandatory 100% scanner inspections under a strict “four-eyes” verification rule.
- The Lower Saxony Ministry emphasised that the authorisation is subject to ongoing review and can be instantly reconsidered in the light of any new national security or foreign policy risks.
The division of responsibility between the German Federal Government (Berlin) and the State Government of Lower Saxony (Hannover) in the Lingen plant expansion caused tension. Under Germany’s Atomic Energy Act, nuclear licensing operates under “federal commission” (Bundesauftragsverwaltung). This means that while the state ministry signs and issues the paperwork, it acts purely as an executive agent bound by the decisions and security assessments of the federal government.
This led to public political friction between state and federal officials regarding the Framatome-Rosatom deal. The decisive factor was a security evaluation compiled by federal authorities, which concluded that because the European Union has explicitly excluded Russia’s civilian nuclear sector from its sanctions packages, there were no legal grounds to block Framatome’s application. Denying it would have triggered multi-million-euro liability lawsuits against the German state.
However, Lower Saxony’s Environment Minister, Christian Meyer (a member of the anti-nuclear Green Party), criticised the cooperation as “politically fundamentally wrong” and “naive, and dangerous”. Meyer said his ministry was legally forced to sign the authorisation based on a classified federal judgment that he, as a state official, was not permitted to fully review.
Ultimately, the Federal Government carried the legal and geopolitical responsibility for the decision, while the State of Lower Saxony was left with the responsibility of enforcing the strict, everyday restrictions designed to keep Russian entities under surveillance.
The approval has triggered immediate backlash from local, national, and international environmental organisations. Activists are preparing a multi-pronged legal campaign to halt the project in German courts. During the official public consultation phase, environmental groups collected and submitted roughly 11,000 formal legal objections against the Lingen expansion. These are providing the foundation for their lawsuits.
While Western European nations focus on the national security aspects of the Lingen project, Central and Eastern European nations need to keep their power grids running Nineteen Soviet-designed VVER reactors operate across the EU in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Finland
These nations are driving the demand for the Lingen plant’s output. In the short term, their reactors require the exact, proven hexagonal fuel designs that can only be manufactured using Rosatom/TVEL licenses. Over the long term, major state utilities including ČEZ (Czech Republic), Fortum (Finland), MVM Paks (Hungary), and Slovenské elektrárne (Slovakia) have signed a joint contract with Framatome supporting development of a 100% sovereign European VVER fuel design. However, until this new fuel completes its years-long certification process, the stopgap production authorised at Lingen is viewed as essential.
Moreover, France is the primary industrial backing behind the project, viewing Lingen licensing as a major commercial win that positions its domestic nuclear industry as the sole pan-European alternative to Russia.
To diversify its operations and potentially ease political tensions in Germany, Framatome is splitting its VVER production. It plans to shift its VVER-440 fuel manufacturing under Rosatom licence to its Romans-sur-Isère facility in southeastern France by the end of the year, keeping only the VVER-1000 manufacturing line in Germany.
Crucially, the Romans-sur-Isère facility is playing a double role. While its immediate assembly line uses Rosatom’s intellectual property to fulfil short-term utility contracts, it is simultaneously serving as the primary engineering hub for the 100% independent European fuel design (the VERA-440).Once the VERA-440 design completes its multi-year testing and licensing phase in the early 2030s, the French facility will phase out the Rosatom-licensed production line entirely. Similarly in Lingen, Framatome expects its VVER-1000 fuel to be licensed by 2030 after which the Rosatom production line will be closed.
Westinghouse Electric Company is Framatome’s primary, direct commercial competitor in the VVER fuel market. Westinghouse serves as the only operational alternative that completely bypasses Russian technology and has already developed a completely independent, Western-designed VVER assembly line. Its VVER-1000 fuel design is already fuelling reactors in Ukraine, Czechia (Temelín), and Bulgaria (Kozloduy). Westinghouse recently commercialised its NOVA E-6 fuel for VVER-440 reactors and has completed initial test deliveries to Ukraine (Rivne), Finland (Loviisa), and Czechia (Dukovany).
However, rather than choosing between one or the other, European utilities are intentionally splitting their business between Westinghouse and Framatome to avoid substituting a Russian monopoly with an American one.
The Euratom Supply Agency (ESA) strictly enforces a diversification policy. The ESA mandates that European nuclear operators must not rely on a single external supplier for critical fuel components. If a utility relies 100% on Westinghouse, any future technical defect, regulatory halt, or factory strike in the US or Sweden could instantly cripple Eastern Europe’s power grids.
European utilities know that if Westinghouse becomes the only option for VVER fuel, it would gain total pricing power, leaving European consumers vulnerable to soaring energy costs. The EU views the nuclear sector as a core pillar of its domestic industrial base. Allowing Westinghouse to sweep the entire VVER market would mean billions of euros in European utility contracts flowing permanently out of the EU or to American-owned entities.
France, which operates Europe’s largest nuclear fleet, has immense political influence in Brussels. Paris heavily pressures the EU to ensure that Framatome, retains a dominant market share in Europe, viewing an American monopoly as a threat to French industrial leadership.
European leaders are also wary of the long-term political strings that come with US energy dominance. US-owned companies are subject to strict American domestic laws, such as ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) and Section 123 of the US Atomic Energy Act. If geopolitical priorities shift in Washington, the US government could theoretically use export controls or regulatory red tape to influence European energy choices.
This is why European utilities are willing to endure the short-term political backlash of Framatome’s Russian-licensed stopgap at Lingen. They see it as a necessary evil to keep Framatome financially stable while it develops its own independent European fuel design.
