As prosecutors prepare to interrogate high-ranking officials from China Shipbuilding Corp next week about construction defects with the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, anti-nuclear activists called on the authorities to step up their investigation.
Prosecutors began their investigation into China Shipbuilding's procedures for awarding contracts to subcontractors on June 12. That investigation has resulted in the detention of four construction supervisors from the company and its subcontractor.
As of yesterday, prosecutors had interrogated more than 20 people involved in the plant's construction, ranging from employees with subcontractors to Taiwan Power Company (Taipower) and China Shipbuilding officials.
On Thursday, accompanied by Atomic Energy Council (AEC) officials and Lin Mao-lin (
After Lin, a retired engineer from a subcontractor of China Shipbuilding, pointed out places where inferior materials had been secretly used, prosecutors confirmed that less pressure-resistant materials were employed at hundreds of welding points.
"Inferior welding materials used at the 282 points were covered with goods that met standards in order to deceive inspectors," Chou Chang-chin (周章欽), a spokesman for the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office, said on Tuesday.
On Friday, after searching the homes of managers of subcontractors in Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties, where both accounting records and financial statements were discovered, prosecutors decided to interrogate high-ranking officials of China Shipbuilding this week.
Prosecutors said that they suspect high-ranking officials of China Shipbuilding or other influential political figures may have received commissions in exchange for awarding contracts to certain subcontractors.
Prosecutors are expected to interrogate China Shipbuilding President Chiang Yuan-Chang (江元璋) and Chairman Yu Chen-nan (余辰南) this week.
Anti-nuclear activists and law-makers yesterday demanded an expansion of the investigation, saying that there are likely other construction defects at the plant.
"Construction defects surrounding the pedestal were just part of Taipower's problems," said Lai Wei-chieh (
"We hope prosecutors can probe into the problem of Taipower's failure to supervise plant construction thoroughly."
Before the Cabinet announced a halt to plant construction in October 2000, residents in Kungliao township, Taipei County, where the controversial plant sits, discovered many construction defects.
Wu Wen-tung (吳文通), an anti-nuclear activist from Kungliao, said at a press conference at the Legislative Yuan on June 14 that an unusual grouting operation at the construction site, which was carried out after the devastating 921 earthquake, deserved a comprehensive investigation.
In July, 2000, anti-nuclear activists in Kungliao reported to the Environmental Protection Administration that construction waste from the site for a wharf, where heavy machines would be transferred, was dumped illegally into the sea. These activists did not get any response.
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