¡¡TOKYO, Aug. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Wednesday it will inspect Kansai Electric Power Co. (KEPCO) possibly later this week in connection with Monday's fatal accident at one of the company's nuclear power plants.

    The agency also expanded the scope of nuclear power plants it wants to be checked and ordered power generators to inspect thermal power plants as well to see if there are any unchecked pipes susceptible to corrosion, believed to be the cause of the rupture that unleashed deadly steam at Mihama Nuclear Power Plant.

    In its planned investigations of Kansai Electric's head office in Osaka, the government agency will investigate documents on the safety management of the power plant pipes, the agency said.

    The latest moves by the agency, a unit of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, followed Monday's accident that killed four workers and injured seven others.

    After Monday's accident, it was found that KEPCO had not inspected the pipe involved since the reactor began service in December 1976.

    In the first meeting Wednesday held by a ministry panel on accident investigations, Haruki Madarame, one of the panel membersand a University of Tokyo professor, criticized KEPCO for not making its own list of items and facilities for inspection and leaving this responsibility to a contractor.

    In the meeting open to the media, another panel member, Hideo Kobayashi, a professor at Tokyo Institute of Technology, referred to the damaged pipe as a "classic example of corrosion."

    The panel consists of six experts mainly on metallurgical engineering and fracture mechanics.

    On Tuesday, the agency ordered the nation's electric utility companies to conduct inspections at facilities that use pressurized water reactors like the Mihama plant, where the ruptured section was found to have never been inspected.

    On Wednesday, the power companies were ordered to check nuclearfacilities employing boiling-water reactors as well as thermal power plants and to produce reports by Aug. 18.

    The agency also ordered those who operate power generation facilities for their own use to implement checks by Aug. 20.

    The scope of the order was expanded because corrosion of pipes resulting from the friction of water and steam that runs through them could also occur at other types of power plants, according tothe agency.

    If the pipes are made of stainless steel, which is stronger against corrosion, such reports are not required for either nuclear or thermal power plants. Enditem