Rosatom CEO expecting new contacts with IAEA head no later than Sept

MOSCOW. Aug 4 (Interfax) - Rosatom CEO Alexei Likhachev expects new contacts with Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi to take place no later than September to discuss the situation at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).

"I think that there will be an opportunity no later than September to once again coordinate positions with the IAEA director general, to compare notes, shape our work in some ways," Likhachev said in an interview with the Rossiya-24 (VGTRK) television channel.

The Russian side "is strongly committed to cooperation with the IAEA, and we see the major leading role of the director general and the entire team of IAEA inspectors [at the Zaporozhye NPP]," he said.

Likhachev also pointed to "the professional, unbiased approach [of IAEA inspectors] under their mandate to ensure the safety and security of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant and to inform the international community about the actual situation there."

The IAEA mission's agenda is expanding all the time, he said.

"The number of issues under their examination, the number of matters that they discuss with our staff is growing," he said.

Rosatom "helps make the gathering of information, which is immediately presented to the international community, as comfortable as possible," Likhachev said.

"We regularly coordinate our positions and estimate our mutual work," he said.