There is sufficient energy in nuclear 'waste' to run Europe at current electrical power consumption" for between 600 and 1000 years.

Since Turkey can legitimately still import diesel-type fuel from Russia, traders can potentially bring in relatively cheap barrels to meet the country’s energy needs. At the same time, Turkey’s own production could be sold at a higher price to the EU.

Both sides expressed satisfaction with the positive dynamic of trade and economic relations, the successful implementation of joint strategic power engineering projects, including gas supplies, and the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in Türkiye.

The EU says its sanctions are meant to cut Moscow revenues and access to technology used in war.

Europe’s appetite for new LNG projects is pushing the continent to boost its import capacity by one-third, but the mismatch between future LNG demand and import facilities might result in 200-250 billion cubic metres (bcm) of unused capacity by 2030.

Two camps, one led by Germany and the other by France, are fighting it out, each with a blocking minority on a specific point: Should low-carbon hydrogen be taken into account when measuring the efforts of member states to reach the target of 45% of renewables in their energy mix by 2030?

Germany suffered the most among EU member states from the Russian supply curtailments, with a number of buyers forced to buy expensive gas on the open market to make up for the Russian shortfall.

"Every politician knows who blew up Nord Stream, but hypocritically keeps quiet," says Vucic.

As the EU pushes more broadly to bolster clean energy, it’s also responding to concerns that green industries could emigrate to the US and China, with the price that Europe pays for its energy a driving factor.

Prior to the sanctions, between October 2021 and September 2022, diesel imports from Russia made up 53% of Northwest Europe’s seaborne imports.

The EU banned imports of Russian oil products from Feb. 5, two months after imposing restrictions on seaborne crude shipments from the country.

"Nuclear energy is one of many tools to achieve our climate goals, to generate base-load electricity and to ensure security of supply," the French ministry noted.

At the same time, Russian LNG imports into the EU rose by around a third to 14.1 million mt (19 Bcm), but it was LNG from other sources -- the US in particular -- that helped fill some of the gap left by lost Russian gas.

Even though Europe has significantly cut its reliance on Russian gas, a lot of the storage that they used to cut the reliance was actually Russian gas from the past.

Overall gas use in the 27-nation European Union plunged by 19.3% from August to January compared with the five-year average for the same period,