(220824) -- ZAPORIZHZHIA, Aug. 24, 2022 (Xinhua) -- Photo taken on Aug. 22, 2022 shows the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. (Photo by Victor/Xinhua) (Photo by Xinhua/Sipa USA)
RUSSIA-UKRAINE-CONFLICT
KYIV (AP) — A U.N. nuclear watchdog team has set off on an urgent mission to safeguard the endangered Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia atomic power plant at the heart of fighting in Ukraine. The world hopes this long-awaited trip will help avoid a nuclear catastrophe. The trip is to a country where the world’s worst nuclear accident, at Chernobyl in 1986, sent radiation throughout the region, shocked the world and intensified a global push away from nuclear energy. The stakes of the U.N. mission are high because of fighting at and near the plant, and because it’s occupied by the Russian military. Europe’s largest nuclear power plant was briefly knocked offline last week. The dangers are so high that officials are handing out anti-radiation iodine tablets.
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