UN agency to inspect Ukraine nuclear plant in urgent mission

Sunflowers grow amid the rubble of Vladimir’s house after being bombed by Russians in Chernihiv, Ukraine (Emilio Morenatti/AP)

A UN nuclear watchdog team has set off on an urgent mission 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 could not be higher for the group of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts who will visit the plant in a country where the 1986 Chernobyl disaster sent radiation throughout the region, shocked the world and intensified a global push away from nuclear energy.