U.N. monitors head to troubled Ukraine nuclear plant

A team of international nuclear inspectors was heading Wednesday to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant caught in the middle of the fighting in southern Ukraine amid international concern of a potential accident or radiation leak.
Rafael Grossi, the head of the the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he hoped to establish a permanent mission in Ukraine to monitor Europe’s largest nuclear plant.
The power plant has been occupied by Russian forces and operated by Ukrainian workers since the early days of the 6-month-old war.
It was recently cut off temporarily from the electrical grid because of fire damage, causing a blackout in the region and heightening fears of a catastrophe in a country haunted by the Chernobyl disaster.
Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko said Kyiv is seeking international assistance to try and demilitarize the area.