The United States completed investigation into the illegal access of occupiers from Rosatom to Westinghouse codes. And they launched an investigation into the involvement or inaction of the Ukrainian owner regarding these codes - RBC Ukraine
14.04.2023
After occupation of the Zaporizhzhya NPP (ZNPP), the russian federation illegally got access to the classified information that is export-controlled by the United States. Under United States law it is subject to civil and criminal enforcement. The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration wrote about this in a letter dated March 17, 2023, which was quoted by RBC-Ukraine. The letter is addressed to Alexey Likachev, Director General of the russian corporation Rosatom.
“Because the items identified in Attachment 1 are export-controlled to Ukraine and ZNPP only, it is unlawful under United States law 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 authorize others to do the same, without such russian entities becoming authorized recipients by the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy”, the letter says.
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Nonproliferation Policy performed a detailed review and confirmed that this information was accessed by a third party without authorization thus violating Title 42, United States Code §2077(b)(2) and Title 10, Code of Federal Regulations Part 810. These violations, the letter says, are subject to criminal enforcement in the United States.
"No russian nationals or entities are identified as end users in the documentation. A search of our records for authorizations in effect between at least January 1, 2022 and the date of this letter also found no record of any current authorization to transfer this technology and technical data to any russian national or entiry,” said Andrea Ferkile, Director of the Office of Nonproliferation Policy, in a letter sent to the DoE Inspector General, dated October 24, 2023.
It follows from this document that the russians, in particular, gained access to two elements. The Advanced Node Code (ANC-H) of Westinghouse Electric Corporation is a three-dimensional core simulator code for a reactor with two power groups. And also access to - 3KEYRELAP5-RT, an advanced code for thermal-hydraulic modeling of the reactor. This code is used to control and monitor simulators and speeds up the process of simulating various situations at the station.
The letter to Rosatom with the warning about criminal liability actually indicates that the investigation into the unauthorized possession of information by russians has been completed and all the collected materials have been transferred to the US Department of Justice for further consideration, an interlocutor familiar with the legal aspects of the investigation of the situation told RBC-Ukraine.
Now the Ministry of Justice will undertake the next step in the process - find out how the russian side managed to get this information. “The question is whether measures were taken by the owner of this information to prevent its disclosure to a third party”, the source said.
“According to American law, not only those who took possession of it, but also those who, by their actions or inaction, contributed to this, are responsible for the falling of information on nuclear technologies into third parties. Under section 222 of the Atomic Energy Act, whoever willfully violates, attempts to violate, or conspires to violate any provision of section 57 of the Atomic Energy Act may be fined up to $10,000 or imprisoned up to 10 years, or both. If the offense is committed with intent to injure the United States or to aid any foreign nation, the penalty could be up to life imprisonment or a $20,000 fine, or both. This is stated in the Code of Federal Regulations § 810.15 (a) (2),” writes RBC-Ukraine.
The Agency reported that it had asked NNEGC Energoatom to comment on whether timely and sufficient measures had been taken to protect classified information at the ZNPP. However, the company declined to comment, citing confidentiality.
We remind that in May, the President of Energoatom, Petr Kotin, in the Espresso stream, denied the possible interest of Rosatom specialists in Westinghouse fuel technology: “This information was disseminated by idle experts, which we did not confirm from the very beginning. We believe that the russian side has no such intentions. Russia, as a nuclear country with a very developed nuclear power industry, has produced the fuel for 50 years. They have enough modifications and enough experience to produce a new fuel modification themselves. We ordered the Westinghouse fuel in order to replace the russian manufactured fuel. And here, the first, second, third generation of this fuel is used at our facilities, so we do not see interest of the russian side in it. And if there were any prerequisites that russians would try to recognize the design of Westinghouse fuel or close to it - there was nothing like that.”