The United States is cautioning Russia against any interference with sensitive nuclear technology located at a nuclear power plant within Ukraine. This warning was conveyed through a letter from the US department of Energy to Rosatom, Russia’s state-owned nuclear energy firm, last month.

Dated March 17, 2023, the letter, reviewed by news outlets, reveals that Andrea ferkile, director of the Energy Department’s Office of Nonproliferation Policy, informed Rosatom’s director general that the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in Enerhodar, Ukraine, “contains US-origin nuclear technical data that is export-controlled by the United States Government.”

according to US export controls, goods, software, and technology are subject to these controls if they can potentially undermine US national security interests.

The Energy Department’s communication occurs amidst the continued control of the plant by Russian forces. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest of it’s kind in europe, is situated in a region of Zaporizhzhia that Russia has occupied since its invasion of Ukraine