EDF denies Russian nuclear waste link

French energy giant EDF has denied allegations its sending atomic waste to Russia.

The electricity firm has come under the media spotlight in a documentary that alleges it’s sending toxic by-products to Siberia.

80 percent of France’s electricity comes from nuclear power, but it currently has no permanent underground storage facility.

At the heart of the TV investigation is the fate of 13 percent of what’s left over of the process. The programme claims it is waste but the French power company says it is spent nuclear fuel that has to be reprocessed.

Despite EDF’s denials, the documentary alleges tonnes of the lethal substance are being kept in open air spaces near to the Siberian town of Tomsk. The site has reportedly been closed to foreigners and journalists.

It’s not the first time the world’s biggest nuclear producers’ disposal of spent fuel has caused controversy.

In 1984, a large cargo ship full of uranium sank off the coast of Belgium on its way to the port of Riga in Latvia, which was under Soviet control at the time.

Copyright © 2009 euronews

tags: EDF, France, Nuclear Energy