France-based Orano company is sending radioactive waste to Armenia, APA reports citing France’s Courrier France 24 publication.
It has been reported that the France-based oil company Orano has been sending hazardous chemical waste resulting from uranium enrichment to Armenia since June 2025, and these harmful substances are being stored in an ecologically sensitive area, within the territory of one of the national parks. This is causing serious concern among environmentalists.
The article states that the company regularly makes donations from various sources to a foundation directly connected to Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Orano, a company registered in France and primarily specialized in the field of nuclear fuel, has for years carried out the storage of waste and other radioactive materials resulting from atomic energy production in Russia. However, the sanctions imposed after the war in Ukraine began have made this step politically impossible, and the company has started looking for alternative routes.
Internal documents belonging to the Orano company provide grounds to say that the decision to transfer the waste to Armenia was made unexpectedly and coincides with following Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to France in February 2025.
Recall that during this visit, he met with President Emmanuel Macron and other official figures. By June, part of the hazardous nuclear waste had already been transported to Armenia and is currently being stored in a facility under construction within the territory of Dilijan National Park.
While Orano was working on the plan to send hazardous nuclear waste to Armenia, another financial transaction was carried out. Specifically, in April–May 2025, two consecutive donations of 800,000 euros were made to the “My Step” charitable foundation, headed by Anna Hakobyan, the wife of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. This process was carried out by two fake companies registered in France. The activities of these companies are unknown to date. According to financial documents, they also have no history of financial donations. Officials from the “My Step” charitable foundation have left questions on the matter unanswered.
Processed nuclear fuel, being highly toxic, also poses a long-term environmental threat. Its storage in a seismically active area like Dilijan National Park puts both wildlife and local communities at risk.
Nuclear fuel remains radioactive for thousands of years and contaminates the entire ecosystem.
The existing contract between the Orano company and Armenia creates a dangerous global tendency: companies operating in financially wealthy countries export their industrial waste to poorer countries with weaker legislation. However, what makes this activity unique is the involvement of political figures, which in the case of Armenia manifests itself as donations to a foundation connected to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Because permission for such a dangerous activity was granted precisely after those donations.
