The approval notice lays out extensive conditions. For example, employees of Rosatom and TVEL are barred from entering the plant. “Access is only permitted in justified exceptional cases and when accompanied by the nuclear regulatory authority,” explained a spokesperson for the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment.
The regulations also stipulate extensive safety inspections of the licensed machines supplied by TVEL and Framatome subsidiary ANF. Framatome employees must adhere to rules governing their interactions with TVEL and Rosatom employees, particularly regarding protection against espionage, sabotage, and recruitment attempts.
The green light comes as nuclear power is increasingly seen as essential to wean the EU off fossil fuels — while the bloc is simultaneously trying to ban energy imports from Russia in response to President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Passing the buck
According to Lower Saxony, an updated assessment by security authorities regarding Russian involvement and proposed security requirements for the project was a key factor in the decision to grant the license (as previously reported by POLITICO). The updated assessment was in a federal government statement issued in February and drawn up under the leadership of Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment. Under the “traffic-light” coalition government, the statements issued by the relevant federal ministries had been significantly more critical.
Although the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment itself made the final decision on the project in Lingen, Lower Saxony’s Environment Minister Christian Meyer considers the federal government’s approval and the revised safety assessment to be “fundamentally wrong.” But Meyer had to accept them in a state governed by the rule of law, he said.
Meyer’s office says it asked the federal ministry whether there was still a possibility that, even with the strict conditions in place, the application might be rejected on grounds of internal and external security. Berlin’s response was unequivocal: “Based on the current findings regarding the risk potential and the conditions imposed, there is no discernible situation that would allow for a legally sound refusal of the permit.”