Over the river from a Russian-occupied nuclear plant, a Ukrainian town fears a spill

https://www.npr.org/2022/08/16/ [login to see] /ukraine-russia-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-town-fears-meltdown
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station sits a few miles across the river from this friendly, no-frills city of steel-pipe factories in south-central Ukraine. Tamara Korolkova, a 70-year-old grandmother, can see the plant's panorama on the horizon from the apartment building where she's lived for decades.

She used to admire its symbolism of a powerful independent Ukraine.

Now she says she has nightmares about the plant blowing up.

"All of us are just scared all the time," she says. "I'm old, I have diabetes. If anything happens, I will only have time to lie on the floor and close my eyes."

Russia occupied the nuclear power plant in March. But in the past few weeks, Russian forces have used the area around the plant to stage rocket and missile attacks on Ukrainian cities — including Nikopol. Locals say these rockets are hitting private homes practically every day. They're also worried that Russia might misfire artillery and instead strike a reactor or nuclear storage facilities at the plant, causing a meltdown and radiation poisoning.