Wed, Aug 18, 2010 page2

• Taipower stops fire safety tender

  THIRD NO CHARM The power company refused to increase its budget for the deal, leaving only one firm with no experience to bid on the firefighting contract

  • By Vincent Y. Chao / STAFF REPORTER
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  State-run Taiwan Power Co (­Taipower) has agreed to review its procedures after documents showed it was close to putting a firefighting equipment company in charge of fire prevention at the nearly operational Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Taipei County as a cost-saving measure.

  Officials at the company yesterday said they would stop a tender that would have awarded a NT$48 million (US$1.5 million) firefighting contract to the sole bidder, Ta An Fire Equipment, a company that had already lost two similar bids.

  The company has no prior government firefighting experience and does not have the required staff. Despite this, it was expected to begin training at the nuclear plant next month, pending acceptance of its bid today.

  

  The Fourth Nuclear Power Plant, also known as the Longmen plant, towers over the coast of Gongliao Township in Taipei County yesterday. The plant is expected to start commercial operations toward the end of next year.

  PHOTO: LU HSIEN-HSIU, TAIPEI TIMES

  The Taipei Times has learned that Ta An was the only company to bid for the contract, in part because Taipower refused to review its budget allocation for the work, despite the failure of two previous tenders for the job on June 30 and July 8.

  Even after holding repeated price negotiations with Taipower officials, more specialized firefighting companies that had worked on government contracts in the past failed to meet the budget constraints outlined in the two tenders.

  However, instead of holding a financial review following the failed negotiations, documents show that the power company revised the tender to loosen the strict requirements placed on potential bidders by removing a clause that required years of related experience.

  “More regulations could drive up the price,” Taipower spokesperson Clint Chou (周義岳) said.

  According to the contract, the winning bidder would have to station a 24-member firefighting brigade at the NT$270 billion power plant, but only three of the 24 would need to be government-licensed firefighters.

  This meant that the majority of firefighters would not have been subject to strict rules, despite the fact that firefighting crews ­operating elsewhere in the nation must first pass a written exam and a physical.

  Taipower said the regulations would not have compromised safety because the brigade would have been be led by experienced firefighters.

  The company said that sensitive nuclear equipment means that members of the team would need direction on where they could aim their fire hoses.

  “All we need is manpower, which we would train. There simply isn’t a market for professional firefighting companies,” said Lin Wen-chang (林文昌), head of ­Taipower’s nuclear power department.

  The details of the contract have infuriated Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers, who accused the government in the legislature of turning a blind eye to nuclear safety.

  DPP Legislator Tien Chiu-chin (田秋堇) said that the matter was only uncovered after members of the DPP caucus received an anonymous tip from a disgruntled ­Taipower employee, who said that the revision would compromise firefighting efforts at the plant.

  “Who’s going to be responsible when something happens that requires a large professional firefighting team?” Tien asked, adding that the changes were made to allow the power plant to open next year, in line with government projections.

  Questions over fire safety at the plant come in the wake of an admission by Chen Shun-lung (陳順隆), Taipower’s top nuclear safety expert, that the almost-finished plant experienced a number of small fires during construction.

  Saying that fires were normal because the plant was still under construction, Chen added the firefighting brigade would be well suited to handle such incidents, if they arise in future.

  “It’s an easy task, easier than, say, firefighting in Taipei or ­Kaohsiung, because a nuclear power plant isn’t prone to the same number of fires,” he said.
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