Germany’s anti-nuclear, Green-led Economics Ministry said on Monday, “The federal government spoke to the European Commission in favor of including the civilian nuclear sector” in the bloc’s next sanctions package, adding that the EU should not “shy away from decisive action in this area.”
The German move occurs against the backdrop of five members of the G7 group – the US, UK, Canada, Japan, and France – announcing at their Tokyo meeting yesterday that they would develop supply chains for nuclear fuel that exclude Russia, in a bid to force the country out of the international nuclear energy market.
This will not be supported by Hungary, which purchases uranium from Russia, and energy authorities there are currently working with Russian state nuclear energy firm Rosatom to expand the country’s sole nuclear power plant, Paks. Budapest has repeatedly argued that previous sanctions have failed to meaningfully weaken Russia, while instead damaging the European economy, and Viktor Orban’s government insists that Russian nuclear fuel is vital to Hungary’s energy security.
