Immediately following the shock of the Niger coup, French President Emmanuel Macron released a statement on July 30 expressing his concern and declaring that France would not tolerate any violence against the country or its interests in West Africa. Macron recognizes the potential threat to France’s energy security, particularly concerning its reactors, which rely on uranium mines in Niger. France has historically had exclusive rights to these mines, but recent changes have cast doubt on French interests. The city of Arlit in Niger holds significant importance for France, as it supplies a third of the country’s electricity. However, much of Niger remains without regular access to electricity. France has been diversifying its sources of uranium, importing from countries like Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Australia, Canada, and Niger. Orano, a French company, controls most of Niger’s uranium production. The extraction of uranium from Niger has raised concerns due to radioactive waste and the use of extractive industry funds for development. The recent military coup in Niger poses a threat to France’s presence and influence in the region, as well as its energy stability for nuclear power generation. The anti-French rhetoric from the military council raises concerns about the future of the uranium supply and France’s relationship with one of its former African colonies. The French government initially believed that a ban on uranium exports from Niger would not significantly impact the country in the short term, as France has strategic reserves. However, Niger still plays a crucial role in France’s uranium supply, and a moratorium on mining would have consequences.
No sooner had Paris absorbed the shock of Niger than the French President, Emmanuel Macron, issued a statement on July 30 revealing the extent of the danger he felt, declaring that his country “will not tolerate violence against France and its interests in this country in West Africa. “any attack”.
Macron is aware of the seriousness of the potential threat to the energy security of France’s reactors, the country affected by the anti-Paris coup military council, which is considered the oldest link between France and the uranium mines that power the old colonial reactors ■ Providing power. Although France has enjoyed exclusive rights to use Niger’s uranium mines in the past few decades, the new changes seem to cast a shadow over French interests that Macron has spoken about more than once.
long French heritage
France first discovered uranium in 1957 in Azerik, Niger, followed by the official announcement in 1971 that France had opened its first uranium mine in the city of Arlit (Al Jazeera)
As soon as you pass the “Arlit” sign written in rusty letters, you will feel that the city of Arlit in Niger is nicknamed “The Second Paris”. Located in the middle of the Sahara Desert, 900 kilometers north-east of the capital, Niamey, the city tells the story of how French colonialism disappeared one day from here until Niger’s independence ended in 1960 .
Over the past six decades, France has remained keen to maintain a foothold across West African countries, and has developed political, diplomatic, military and economic links with the rulers of its former colonial states, a network often referred to as “Françafrique” (French-African Special Relations). But on a very special level, Niger, a poor country in the Sahel, holds a special place in Paris. It lights a third of France’s light bulbs, while much of the country remains dark, with nearly 90 percent of the population without regular access to electricity.
In 1957, France first discovered uranium mines in Azerique, Niger, and then officially announced in 1971 that France had opened its first uranium mine in the city of Arlit, when it took over the French state-owned Areva Company (known as now in Orano) the task of doing so. extracting the ore most commonly used for France’s nuclear power.
Over time, Orano currently operates three mines in Niger, of which only one is currently producing, the Somair mine in Arlit, which the company operates in partnership with a Niger company Sopamin. The Akouta mine, about 10 kilometers away from the urban area, is closed in 2021. However, Orano has not given up on the site and will carry out “post-mine” activities before 2033. Similarly, the Imouraren mine, 80 kilometers south of Arlit, was also closed. Arlit is one of the largest uranium deposits in the world. Production at the site has been suspended due to unfavorable market conditions, while France relies heavily on uranium for nuclear power generation. Paris remains one of 13 EU member states that use nuclear power stations to generate electricity, arguing that nuclear power offers a low carbon alternative to fossil fuels in electricity generation.
France relies heavily on uranium for nuclear power generation (Al Jazeera)
Before 2000, France relied mainly on domestic uranium production, but with the depletion of uranium in France, the last mine in France was closed in 2001. The French government has put more emphasis on its policy of diversifying imports of foreign uranium as a source safety for French nuclear power plant operator EDF and, as suggested by France’s long-standing supply agency, the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom).
Over the past few years, the Paris strategy has focused on introducing uranium to Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Australia for cost reasons. From 2022, France has five uranium suppliers, namely Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Australia and Canada, as well as Niger. Niger continues to supply 15% of France’s radioactive metal reserves, with Orano controlling most of the country’s production, accounting for more than 4% of the global total.
Although Niger is no longer the strategic partner of Paris that it was in the 1960s and 1970s, the French extraction of uranium from Niger remains a pressing issue today. That’s because the turnover of the French company Orano was 9 billion euros ($12.4 billion) a year almost a decade ago, more than four times Niger’s entire annual budget of 2 billion euros. This has fueled domestic anger over the need to use extractive industry money to promote development in one of the world’s poorest and least developed countries.
There was also anger over the careless act of the French, which left dangerous levels of radioactive waste in the local population living near the mine during uranium mining. After closing the Akouta mine in 2021, they left 20 million tons of radioactive waste in the town of Arlit.
What did France do in Niger? How did the French steal uranium from Africa? (Social networking site)
Uranium is at the heart of France’s concerns
On July 26, the employees of the French company Orano were busy at work when they received news of a military coup in the country. At the time, the French company’s management had to work hard to reassure workers and prepare them for the current environment, the first of which was a nationwide curfew in Niger. In fact, Orano’s 900 employees in Niger, most of whom are Niger nationals, were able to continue their activities at the company’s headquarters in Niamey and at its operating sites in Arlit and Akoukan. Although there is no sign yet that the company will be forced to leave Niger, management of the company, which has been operating in the country for 50 years, has raised concerns that the military could expel the French group, or that any could Evacuate in case. urgent
First, it can be argued that preventing companies in any way from carrying out the work, not just the huge financial losses, the lack of alternatives or abandoning mine safety measures will lead to huge health and environmental risks. The reason is that the ground water that people can use is contaminated by uranium deposits, and the company is responsible for covering the remaining debris and rock to prevent radioactive spread or to prevent rainwater loading and contaminating the ground water.
As Niger’s coup d’état ignores French and international fanfare, the country’s former colonialists immediately play an irreplaceable role. First, Paris has provided decades of massive economic and development aid to the country, where 40% of the population lives in poverty. Foreign aid accounts for 9 percent of gross domestic product and about 40 percent of the state budget, while 33 percent of Niger’s exports, almost all irradiated fuel, go to France in a sharply declining economy .
Paris fears the fate of the energy stability needed by France’s nuclear industry which is already vital to its power generation (Reuters)
Indeed, if the putschists insist on ending the French presence, and Paris continues to withhold French aid, it will be difficult for Niger to find a suitable new partner to help with uranium mining and follow the sale process. As for the French government, Paris is worried not only about its dwindling political influence in Niger and across the Sahel, but also about the fate of the energy stability France needs for its nuclear industry, which is already necessary for its power generation.
Against this background, there were soon signs that Paris’ concerns were gaining ground as the army’s anti-French rhetoric intensified. They accused the French government of “wanting to intervene militarily in their country”, after which the country’s military council threatened to stop heavy metal exports to France. This gave Paris an idea of what to expect in one of its most important former African colonies. Recently, coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and other countries have weakened their influence and suffered serious blows one after the other.
During the initial moments of the coup, the French believed that banning uranium would not hurt France in the short to medium term, as Paris had strategic reserves of uranium in various stages equivalent to two years of use. However, the French themselves do not deny that Niger still plays an important role in the country’s uranium supply. A moratorium on the mining of Niger’s minerals, which meet an estimated 15 percent of the needs of its nuclear power plants, will affect the process of obtaining energy. About 70% of France’s electricity comes from nuclear power, making it the country most dependent on nuclear power in the world.
Uranium war: Russia bears the brunt
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner, who was recently killed in a mysterious plane crash, was one of the first to intervene in the coup crisis in Niger. The man who has sent thousands of fighters to the countries of Mali and Burkina Faso was quick to offer assistance to the Niger army following a similar military takeover. That has raised some concerns, including what will happen to the uranium, which will be exported to France and the European Union, if the Niger junta accepts Wagner’s or the Russians’ overtures.
While the possibility that Niger’s new military rulers will turn to the “uranium card” and block its shipment to the West in response to EU sanctions and aid cuts cannot be ruled out, we must firmly recognize the importance of Niger to stability European energy. Niamey is the EU’s largest uranium supplier in 2021, followed by Kazakhstan and Russia, which is currently the seventh largest producer in the world, according to the Euratom supply agency. If we know the importance of nuclear energy in Europe, the importance of Niger increases. It accounts for around 10% of the EU’s energy consumption by 2022, not forgetting the very important fact that Niger does not ban the use of uranium to produce nuclear weapons, while other major uranium producers such as Australia and Canada limit serious on the use of metal for civil use field use.
Even considering alternatives to uranium Niger, France and the EU turning to important producers such as Kazakhstan or Uzbekistan is not really a guarantee of energy stability. So at a time when Russia does not hesitate to use energy as an economic tool, these two countries alone account for half of France’s natural uranium imports and about 50 percent of the world’s mineral supply, ending up as two of the countries influenced by Kremlin. In the former Soviet republics, all their radioactive fuel is shipped by Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear power company.
Russia itself is another major supplier of uranium to European nuclear power plants, and is also one of the world’s largest exporters of uranium, controlling almost half of the world’s radioactive metal enrichment capacity. Taken together, this means that Russian leads are in what US officials have recently called “unsustainable strategic vulnerability.” About a third of the enriched uranium used by US facilities in 2022 will come from Russia. At a time when uranium and nuclear energy are generally exempt from international sanctions, the EU may be forced to drop sanctions on Russia’s nuclear sector, or at least suspend them for a while.
With Moscow showing its willingness to join the scramble for influence in Niger, France and the West fear that the Kremlin will actually use uranium as an economic weapon, so they are ready to defend their interests until the end It also means that the poor and marginalized coastal state becomes an arena for a struggle for influence at the expense of its poor and marginalized population.
It has the world’s second largest fleet after the United States, with 56 of 18 power stations using uranium.
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