AREVA's controversial shipments of uranium wastes from France to Russia could be terminated as early as July 2010, according to media reports and a press release by the French chapter of the environmental group Greenpeace. The uranium waste trade with Russia was highlighted in a television documentary in the fall of 2009 and led to inquiries by the French government and the High Committee for Transparency and Information on Nuclear Security (HCTISN). It is likely that AREVA will stop the shipments to Russia as a consequence of the significant pressure that has built up around the activity. AREVA claims on its website (in French only)  that the termination of the French-Russian depleted and reprocessed uranium was scheduled for 2010 as early as 2006 and that AREVA would have made corresponding declarations at the HCTISN hearings in November 2009. However, there is no indication in the written statements transmitted and none of the participants in the AREVA hearing interviewed by the online info service Rue89 recalls any such statement. Rue89 wonders whether "AREVA is attempting to antedate the announcement of the end of the contracts and disguise a commercial failure following the scandal triggered by the inquiry 'Waste, nuclear's nightmare' broadcasted by the television channel ARTE last October?"

In fact, as an answer by the Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom) to a parliamentary question from the Russian Duma illustrates (see annex 1 of English translation of the document) Franco-Russian contracts originally ran up to 2014.

The HCTSIN hearings provided a better overview of the massive material flows between France and Russia. The Department of Defence Security and Economic Intelligence at the Ecology Ministry that is responsible for nuclear material accountancy in France published the following figures:

Less than 10% of the uranium mass shipped from France to Russia over the past four years "came back". The following tables show the details by chemical form of the uranium. It is clear that the category uranium with less than 1% enrichment level is reprocessed uranium from the La Hague facility.

Uranium Shipped from France to Russia 2006-2009 (in metric tons)

Year	Depleted uranium	Natural uranium	<1% Enriched uranium	>1% Enriched uranium
2006	6,500	1,840	360	0.5
2007	6,280	1,600	420
2008	6,100	1,630	670	0.5
2009	4,660	1,700	440
Total	23,540	6,770	1,890	1

Uranium Shipped from Russia to France 2006-2009 (in metric tons)

Year	EURODIF Pierrelatte	AREVA NC Pierrelatte	FBFC Romans
2006	620	120	40
2007	530	60	110
2008	640	110	100
2009	600	90	60
Total	2,400	380	310

The quality and chemical form of the material that was imported from Russia is not specified. From the locations it is likely that natural uranium went to EURODIF for enrichment and re-enriched reprocessed uranium to the FBFC facility in Romans-sur-Isère which fabricates fuel also on the basis of reprocessed uranium. It is unclear what quality of uranium went to AREVA's Pierrelatte site where its subsidiary Comhurex carries out uranium conversion, just adjacent to the facility where AREVA stores over 25,000 tons of reprocessed uranium (as of end of 2008). Considering the fact that the total amount of spent fuel reprocessed in France is about 38,000 tons, a significant share has gone elsewhere. It is clear now that most of it ended up in Russia.