Ukraine has engaged in some rather dangerous adventures in order to retake the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, but some lawyers at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have outdone themselves—not as dangerous, but wildly more farcical.
Russia’s nuclear energy company Rosatom has been running the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) for over a year now, and the Zaporozhye region voted to officially join Russia. Kiev has tried artillery fire at the plant (to convince the West that it had to intervene to stop the danger to the plant!), has launched a failed military assault with 600 special operatives, and has tried to manipulate the IAEA to kick the Russians out.
On March 17, 2023, the DOE sent a letter to Rosatom, as recently reported by RBC Ukraine (and picked up by CNN’s Natasha Bertrand), instructing them that it is “unlawful” for any Russian citizens or entities to handle U.S. technology; hence, they need to clear out. However, Rosatom is not confused that it was the Soviet Union, not the U.S., that built the plant with Soviet technology. But Rosatom apparently wasn’t aware that, according to the DOE lawyers, the ZNPP “contains U.S.-origin nuclear technical data that is export-controlled by the United States government.”
