Ukrainian authorities distribute iodine pills to citizens near Zaporizhia

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The pills are being distributed to people living within a 50-kilometer radius of the plant, a spokesman for the Zaporizhia Regional Military Command told NBC News.

Ukrainian authorities have started handing out iodine pills to residents near Zaporizhia’s largest nuclear power plant, amid growing fears that fighting around the plant could cause a radioactive leak or even more destruction.

The move came a day after the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant was temporarily disconnected from the national power grid for the first time in its 40-year history, raising fears of a nuclear disaster in a country still haunted by the 1986 Chernobyl explosion.

The pills are being distributed to people living within a 50-kilometer radius of the plant, a spokesman for the Zaporizhia Regional Military Command told NBC News.

The advice to citizens is not to take the pills as a precaution, as “they are being distributed in case of any future radiation leak, so the government would instruct people to take them,” he added.

He did not specify how many pills were distributed and to whom, but in a separate post on his Telegram channel, the mayor of the city of Enerhodar said that 25,000 pills were delivered to the southern city from the reserve.

He emphasized that the levels of radioactivity at the plant and the surrounding areas were normal.

Potassium iodide pills can help protect the thyroid from radiation exposure, according to the ECDC.

In the meantime, today is expected in the area the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi.

“The day has come, the IAEA mission to Zaporizhia is now on its way. We must protect the safety of the largest nuclear plant in Ukraine and Europe,” Mr. Grossi said via Twitter, clarifying that the team he will personally lead will arrive at the plant “later this week.”

On Friday, the country’s state nuclear company, Energoatom, said the plant was being safely fed through a repaired line from the electricity grid, a day after it was disconnected from the national power grid. There were no problems with the plant’s machinery or safety systems, he said.

It was later announced that the plant had been reconnected to Ukraine’s electricity grid and was producing enough electricity to meet the country’s needs.

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