According to a letter written last month by the US Department of Energy to Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy corporation Rosatom, the US possesses sensitive nuclear equipment at a nuclear power facility in Ukraine and is urging Russia not to touch it.
Andrea Ferkile, director of the Energy Department’s Office of Nonproliferation Policy, informs Rosatom’s director general in a letter dated March 17, 2023 that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Enerhodar “contains US-origin nuclear technical data that is export-controlled by the United States Government.”
Goods, software, and technology are subject to US export regulations if they can be utilised in a way that jeopardises US national security interests.
The letter comes as Russian soldiers continue to control the facility, which is Europe’s largest nuclear power station and is located in the Zaporizhzhia region, which Russia annexed following its invasion of Ukraine in February. Due to Russian shelling in the vicinity, the facility has frequently been severed from Ukraine’s electrical supply, heightening worries of a nuclear explosion across Europe.
Rosatom oversees the factory, which is still physically run by Ukrainian workers. The Energy Department reminded Rosatom in the letter that any Russian citizens or businesses handling US technology is “illegal.”
Rosatom has been contacted for comment by AWN.
“Under United States law, it is unlawful for non-authorized persons, including but not limited to Russian citizens and Russian entities, such as Rosatom and its subsidiaries, to knowingly and willfully access, possess, control, export, store, seize, review, re-export, ship, transfer, copy, manipulate such technology or technical data, or direct or authorise others to do the same, without such Russian entities becoming authorised recipients by the Sec.”
It is unknown whether Rosatom responded to the letter. The letter is genuine, according to the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration.
RBC, a Russian news source, originally reported on the letters.
“The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration can confirm that the letter is legitimate,” said Shayela Hassan, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s deputy director of public affairs.
“The Secretary of Energy has statutory authority to authorise the transfer of unclassified civilian nuclear technology and assistance to foreign atomic energy activities,” she noted. DOE makes no comments on regulatory matters.”
Another letter, dated October 24, 2022, from Ferkile to the Energy Department’s Inspector General, outlines the technology that the US has exported to Ukraine for use in the Zaporizhzhia plant and reiterates that the department has “no record of any current authorization to transfer this technology and technical data to any Russian national or entity.”
The US Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy has made public its support for the plant, stating on its website in June 2021 that “the United States helped implement new maintenance procedures and operations at the reactor that should ultimately strengthen energy security” in Ukraine.