Zelenskyy and UN atomic agency head warn of heightened risk at huge Ukrainian nuclear plant

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine’s president and the U.N. nuclear agency head are sounding the alarm about increased safety risks at the Russia-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine, which lost its external power supply more than a week ago as the war raged around it.

Emergency diesel generators are providing power for crucial cooling systems for the facility’s six shutdown reactors and spent fuel, and there is no immediate danger to Europe’s biggest nuclear plant, according to International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi .

But “it is clearly not a sustainable situation in terms of nuclear safety,” he said.

The backup generators have never needed to run for so long, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“The generators