GOP Leaders Object to French Nuclear Trade with Russia

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Senate Foreign Relations Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch (R-ID) sent a letter to President Biden urging him to reject a proposal to waive U.S. sanctions imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in order to allow a French-owned company, Électricité de France (EDF), to engage in civil nuclear projects with Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy company.

“Exempting EDF from U.S. sanctions would allow it to acquire a subsidiary of a major U.S. company that was engaged in civil nuclear projects with Rosatom in Hungary, Turkey, and Egypt – projects that have been suspended for several years due to sanctions. EDF would then provide turbines and related foundational technology for those projects, thereby facilitating Russian energy influence and related corruption in those countries likely for decades,” the lawmakers wrote. “Given your administration’s stated policy goals and the severe threat that overdependence on Russian energy poses to transatlantic security, it is incomprehensible that your administration would consider actively perpetuating this dependence.”

Full text of the letter can be found here.