Came across the Wiki article about this disaster while researching power station accidents:
Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydroelectric Station Disaster
Amateur video of the disaster taken a few moments after it started, from outside the plant:
Pretty crazy.
What is it with the Russians and power stations?
This station was built in the late 1970s. The technology was very well-understood by then, and you'd think that the people in charge of design, materials and construction techniques to prevent catastrophic failures like this one would have ensured it was done right. The way I look at it, I'd rather spend more any day on the front end of a project, than have to completely rebuild it because it self-destructed.
Of course, the other main factor was an improper repair that was made on the turbine.
What blows my mind is that everyone knew that turbine #2 was messed up, even from very soon after it was spooled up for the first time. It was vibrating well beyond limits in more than one regime, but nobody did anything about it. There was also corrosion and metal fatigue everywhere in the structural parts of the turbine unit and housing, etc. So, it wasn't maintained properly.
Sure, the cost would have been astronomical to stop plant operations to fix #2. But the cost of NOT fixing it turned out to be many orders of magnitude higher.
The resulting disaster was horrendous. 75 people killed, billions of dollars in damage, many people's livelihoods interrupted, environmental pollution, etc.
Chernobyl was a different type of power station and disaster, but both were preventable and caused by negligence and other human factors.
Sayano-Shushenskaya Hydroelectric Station Disaster
Amateur video of the disaster taken a few moments after it started, from outside the plant:
Pretty crazy.
What is it with the Russians and power stations?
This station was built in the late 1970s. The technology was very well-understood by then, and you'd think that the people in charge of design, materials and construction techniques to prevent catastrophic failures like this one would have ensured it was done right. The way I look at it, I'd rather spend more any day on the front end of a project, than have to completely rebuild it because it self-destructed.
Of course, the other main factor was an improper repair that was made on the turbine.
What blows my mind is that everyone knew that turbine #2 was messed up, even from very soon after it was spooled up for the first time. It was vibrating well beyond limits in more than one regime, but nobody did anything about it. There was also corrosion and metal fatigue everywhere in the structural parts of the turbine unit and housing, etc. So, it wasn't maintained properly.
Sure, the cost would have been astronomical to stop plant operations to fix #2. But the cost of NOT fixing it turned out to be many orders of magnitude higher.
The resulting disaster was horrendous. 75 people killed, billions of dollars in damage, many people's livelihoods interrupted, environmental pollution, etc.
Chernobyl was a different type of power station and disaster, but both were preventable and caused by negligence and other human factors.