IAEA head: Increased combat around Ukrainian nuclear plant

By ELENA BECATOROS
Associated Press

DNIPRO, Ukraine (AP) — The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency says fighting has intensified near a nuclear power plant in Ukraine that is Europe’s largest. The director general of the U.N.’s nuclear energy watchdog, Rafael Mariano Grossi, said the increased active combat increases the possibility of a war-related accident at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. The Vienna-based agency has a rotating team based at the plant. The six reactors are shutdown and the plant has been receiving the electricity it needs to prevent a meltdown through one functioning power line. Grossi said while in Ukraine on Tuesday that he will probably head to Russia in the coming days to ramp up talks on safeguarding the facility.