Explainer-Europe's biggest nuclear plant - at centre of a war zone and dam breach

A view shows Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir near the town of Nikopol after the Nova Kakhovka dam breached, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine June 9, 2023. REUTERS/Stringer

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A disastrous breach in Ukraine's huge Kakhovka dam has further stoked alarm over the safety of the nearby Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has for months been a target of shelling due to its proximity to military front lines.

The head of the United Nations' atomic watchdog, Rafael Grossi, will visit the area this week to check "a significant discrepancy" in water level data at the reservoir, used to fill a pond for cooling the reactors at the nuclear plant.