Claims of substandard welding at the construction site of Finland's third commercial nuclear reactor have led to a request for a police investigation. An engineer serving as deputy project chief for the construction company Bouygues feels that a current affairs programme on YLE TV-2 libelled his company with claims of substandard welding at the site. The matter is being investigated by Tampere police. The current affairs programme Ajankohtainen kakkonen aired a programme in late August claiming that Bouygues had hired subcontractors for welding work at the site without proper instructions or oversight. According to the programme, the welding at the construction site began in the summer of 2005, but the first instructions were approved in the autumn of 2006. The programme also said that welding had gone on at the construction site for months without competent supervision. Nuclear reactor construction sites are required to have named coordinators responsible for supervising welding. According to the YLE exposé, the French company Bouygues informed the Nuclear and Radiation Safety Authority STUK the names of two people who it said were the welding coordinators. The individuals concerned were reportedly not competent to the task, and did not even know that they were supposed to be welding coordinators. YLE
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