NEW YORK, April 19. /TASS/. The US Department of Energy warned Russia’s state-run nuclear corporation Rosatom about the presence of "US-origin nuclear technical data that is export-controlled by the United States Government" at the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant, CNN has reported.

The US Department of Energy confirmed the authenticity of the letter, sent on March 17, 2023. It warns that unauthorized access to export-controlled technologies and information constitutes a breach of the US law.

The department did not say whether it got any reply from Rosatom. It also did not answer the question of why the letter was sent at this particular moment, and not earlier.

Earlier, the United States imposed sanctions on several Rosatom subsidiaries. A number of European countries favor blacklisting the Russian corporation as well.

The Zaporozhye nuclear plant, located in the town of Energodar, has six reactors with a combined capacity of about 6,000 MW, making it the largest in Europe. It used to generate a quarter of all electric power in Ukraine. In March 2022, the Zaporozhye facility was placed under the Russian army’s control.

Since then, the Ukrainian military has been periodically bombarding both Energodar’s residential quarters and the premises of the Zaporozhye nuke plant, employing drones, heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems.