Germany has approved a controversial French-Russian nuclear project despite warnings that it could allow spying and sabotage by Moscow.

A prominent member of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s center-right CDU, Roderich Kiesewetter, said the federal government should intervene to prevent the project from going forward. The decision was “dangerous to security and must be reversed,” he said.

The joint venture would see Russia’s state-owned nuclear power agency, Rosatom, and a subsidiary of the French company Framatome, produce fuel rods for Russian-designed reactors.

The project would be based at Framatome’s fuel rod assembly facility in the German town of Lingen, Lower Saxony.

The project’s approval comes after Rosatom was exempted from consecutive rounds of EU sanctions against Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Germany has been one of Ukraine’s largest military and financial supporters since Russia’s invasion, but has also been concerned about Russian hybrid warfare. Germany itself closed the last of its own nuclear reactors in 2023.

The move highlights the limits of Europe’s effort to reduce strategic dependence on Russia despite the ongoing war in Ukraine.