UN agency to inspect Ukraine nuclear plant in urgent mission

A firefighter takes a break to drink water as he works to extinguish a fire after a Russian attack that heavily damaged a building in Sloviansk, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)

A U.N. nuclear watchdog team set off on an urgent mission Monday to safeguard the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia atomic power plant at the heart of fighting in Ukraine, a long-awaited trip the world hopes will help avoid a radioactive catastrophe.

The stakes couldn’t be higher for the International Atomic Energy Agency experts who will visit the plant in a country where the 1986 Chernobyl disaster spewed radiation throughout the region, shocking the world and intensifying a global push away from nuclear energy.

“Without an exaggeration, this mission will be the hardest in the history of IAEA,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.