Radiation authority: Olkiluoto welding up to standard

Claims of substandard work based on “misunderstandings”

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The Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority (STUK) did not find any significant shortcomings at the construction site of the third nuclear reactor being built at Olkiluoto in connection with special inspections conducted this week. According to STUK, the claims put forward in a current affairs television programme on Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE), and mentioned by Greenpeace on shortcomings in the quality of welding in the iron structure of the concrete, and of the alleged incompetence of oversight at the construction site are based on misunderstandings.
      “All of the welding that was significant from the pont of view of safety ... has been made according to instructions and have also been inspected by STUK”, said the authority’s Director General Jukka Laaksonen at a press conference on Friday.
      Laaksonen said that the claims made on the programme concerned welding that had no significance from the point of view of structural strength. The welds in question simply keep the iron in place as the concrete is being poured.
      “Our inspectors are always on the spot monitoring concrete casting, and have been able to confirm that the iron has stayed in place during the casting.”
     
STUK investigated claims that employees were pressured into silence by interviewing the employees at the site. According to Laaksonen, they were not sure who could be told about the problems.
      STUK called on TVO, which commissioned the construction of the plant, to reiterate to employees that they have an obligation to report directly to TVO or to STUK if the supervisors do not take action immediately to fix possible problems that are raised.
      “On the other hand, the fact that it is not permissible to talk about problems at the building site while off duty is quite normal in all companies”, Laaksonen observes.
     
STUK is also calling for improvements to arrangements for welding work. TVO also needs to make sure that language difficulties at the multilingual construction site do not cause any problems with respect to security or quality of the work.
      “Although the shortcomings that have been noticed have involved work of limited significance, attention is being paid to them, because they reveal something of the safety culture at the construction site”, says Pekka Välikangas, head of construction supervision at STUK.
     
According to Lasse Reiman, head of supervision at the construction site, supervision of the work done by subcontractors has improved significantly since the summer of 2007. At that time, problems were found with the welding of the steel containment buildings that were so serious, that the work was suspended completely for two months.
      “A long chain of subcontractors was involved there. Problems were found in parts ordered from Poland, and some of the welders brought in for the installment work were not at all up to scratch. After this case, Areva has considerably upgraded oversight of its subcontractors”, Reiman says.
      Reiman also says that the attitudes of the foreign workers are just right, even though the work is taking place far from home, and the contractor is under pressure from the delays in the construction.
      “We interviewed welders chosen at random, and the Poles, for instance, have a very strong sense of professional pride in the quality of their work”, he says.
      Laaksonen feels that Finns might have something to learn from some of the working methods of Bouygues, the French company responsible for the construction work.
      “Their building site arrangements and work safety measures, for instance on how scaffolding is built, could serve as an example to any construction site in Finland. The planning is also at a very high standard”, Laaksonen says.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Pekkarinen calls for additional information from nuclear safety authority over working practices at Olkiluoto reactor site (22.8.2008)
  Greenpeace calls for suspension of construction on new nuclear reactor and safety review (14.8.2008)

Links:
  STUK - Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Finland
  TVO - Olkiluoto 3 project

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