Greenpeace activists storm stage at France’s nuclear summit

PARIS: Two Greenpeace activists broke onto the stage at the start of a global nuclear summit in France on Tuesday. They interrupted President Emmanuel Macron. The activists also interrupted UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi as they were greeting heads of state.

The protesters wore black suits and ties. They held banners with the Greenpeace logo. The banners read “Nuclear Power = Energy Insecurity” and “Nuclear power fuels Russia’s war”.

One of them shouted at Macron, “Why are we still buying uranium from Russia?” to which the president replied, “We produce nuclear power ourselves.” France has its own uranium enrichment capacity. However, it also imports enriched uranium for its power plants. Some of this comes from Russia, according to the latest customs data published by the French government.

In 2025, Russia’s state nuclear company Rosatom held about 44pc of the global uranium enrichment capacity. This data is according to the World Nuclear Association. European nuclear power producers have struggled to wean themselves off these supplies. This challenge persists four years after Russia invaded Ukraine.

Around 15 Greenpeace activists blocked arriving convoys outside the venue in Boulogne-Billancourt on the outskirts of Paris on Tuesday. The environmental campaigning group said this in a statement.

France is hosting the second world nuclear energy summit on Tuesday. World leaders will meet there to discuss and promote nuclear power. “For Greenpeace France, the holding of such a summit is an anachronism, an event completely out of touch with reality and with the lessons to be learned from the tragic situations of the Russian aggression in Ukraine, the strikes on Iran, and the impacts of the worsening climate disruption,” the group said.

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Henry Brown

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