Russian Dam Disaster

September 4, 2009 10:59 PM

On August 17th one of the worlds largest hydroelectric plants, Sayano–Shushenskaya in Russia, suffered a major catastrophe.

The disaster has resulted in 73 confirmed dead and two missing. It has also resulted in the destruction or damage of 9 of the 10 turbines, a transformer fire and extensive flooding in the turbine hall as well as collapsing a major part of it's roof. Additionally a large amount of insulating oil is traveling downriver. The cause of the accident is still unknown but evidence is pointing toward a failure of the #2 turbine or its control system.

70% of the hydroplants electric generation was used to power 4 aluminum smelters. The accident will result in a cut of 500,000 tons of production.

Early estimates are that it will take 4 years and 1.3 billion dollars to repair the facility.

posted by Confess, Fletch (40 comments total)

That video was way less intense than I had imagined.
posted by roygbv at 11:13 PM on September 4 [3 favorites]

It scared the hell out of me. As soon as I saw it I figured it was a turbine that had blown out. Flooding the power house with that much water is a guarantee that the whole generation facility will be wrecked. (And at the beginning you can see a big electric arc as something is being shorted out.

I don't see how it could have killed that many people, however.

And one of the reasons it's going to take that long to fix is because big turbines and big dynamos like that can't be ordered off-the-shelf. They have to be built to order. They're essentially hand-made.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 11:40 PM on September 4

wait, i thought this was the work of turrrrrists?
posted by slater at 11:53 PM on September 4

It's nice to see that our Russian friends have the same "it wasn't us!" finger pointing among corporate entities that we enjoy here in the states, if you read the wiki article on the disaster itself.

Were there that many people in the power house because of the ongoing maintenance work, or do dam powerhouses generally take that many people to run? I'm sorry anyone was hurt or killed, let alone that many.
posted by maxwelton at 11:54 PM on September 4

Slater, it's nice that you think the deaths of 75 people is a laughing matter. Stay classy.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 12:20 AM on September 5

Janitors, painters, engineers, electricians, general maintenance workers, administrative staff, supervisors, maybe a guard or two; any massive installation like this is going to have dozens of people around all the time either actively working or hanging around monitoring in case anything goes wrong.
posted by Mitheral at 12:26 AM on September 5

My first thought was, "Why the hell is that guy running toward the exploding power plant?" but maybe he knew there were people inside and wanted to help... unlike the guy filming the video and laughing.
posted by Huck500 at 12:44 AM on September 5

unlike the guy filming the video and laughing.

Maybe it was a really good joke?
posted by delmoi at 12:49 AM on September 5

The guy running towards the dam reminds me of the guy who went walking on the bridge just before the famous Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse. There must be some minority of people for whom the basic message - "Run away. Run away. Run away." - is flipped to "Run towards. Run towards. Run towards."
posted by twoleftfeet at 12:51 AM on September 5 [2 favorites]

English Russia's sets: Hydro Electic Power Plant Explosion and The Station: Repairworks.
posted by rhapsodie at 12:58 AM on September 5 [1 favorite]

It is good see that some of the local people had the sense to head for high ground and wait for news rather than doing things the other way around.
posted by srboisvert at 1:44 AM on September 5

I hope they clean up that oil spill. The transformer oil is likely filled with PCBs and dioxins from the fire. That can't be good news for anyone downstream.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:30 AM on September 5

The guy doing the videotaping is an idiot. My first reaction to a possible breach in a dam wall would be to drive away as quickly as possible, preferably to high ground.
posted by Joe in Australia at 2:35 AM on September 5

Slater, it's nice that you think the deaths of 75 people is a laughing matter. Stay classy.

And you stay ad hominem, Chocolate Pickle
posted by slater at 3:31 AM on September 5

My first reaction to a possible breach in a dam wall would be to drive away as quickly as possible, preferably to high ground.

Yeah, I hope that would be my reaction too. On the other hand: Do you remember all those videos from the 2004 tsunami? Not only were people not leaving the beach when the water level suddenly dropped dramatically, people who were nearby actually ran down to the beach.

I suspect I would have reacted pretty much like this Swedish couple. "Huh, all the water suddenly disappeared. (2 min later) Huh, in twenty seconds the water level rose by about 4 meters. Strange. But pretty cool... Oh, this can't be good, time to leave. Run!"
posted by Dumsnill at 3:54 AM on September 5

I don't want to come over all conspiracy-theorist about it, but the political and economical implications of this accident are vast, which means that somebody stands to benefit (and benefit a lot) from these deaths. Maybe that's why the guy with the camera was laughing (what was he doing there, in the first place?).

The aluminium company which has possibly lost half a million tonnes in production capacity is UC Rusal, whose CEO Oleg Deripaska is better known to the public outside of Russia for his role in last year's British real-life political sitcom A Dinner In Corfu. Mr. Deripaska, apparently also a good friend of Saif Gaddafi, and an important player in Magna's bid for GM's European unit Opel AG, won control of Russia's aluminium industry in the wake of the infamous "aluminium wars", which already left over 100 people dead. However, Deripaska was already in deep financial trouble before this accident.

Still, although there are mind-boggling amounts of dosh at stake, I don't think Mr. Deripaska, his bankers, another oligarch, or the Kremlin directly ordered somebody to blow up this dam Also, I don't want to die from polonium poisoning. I nevertheless do believe that these 73 people were murdered. Murdered by the greed with which Mr. Deripaska and others plundered Russia's resources, starving vital infrastructure of the investments needed for even the most basic maintenance.
posted by Skeptic at 4:17 AM on September 5 [5 favorites]

The guy doing the videotaping is an idiot. My first reaction to a possible breach in a dam wall would be to drive away as quickly as possible, preferably to high ground.

Well, to be fair, we should perhaps keep in mind that the decades of oppression and privations that Russians endured under the Soviet system, plus the more recent excesses runaway cowboy capitalism and gangsterism have imparted upon many Russians a certain... fatalism.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:40 AM on September 5 [1 favorite]

that's "recent excesses of runaway cowboy capitalism"
posted by flapjax at midnite at 4:42 AM on September 5

My boss tells me there's a great Powerpoint technical presentation floating around among engineers about what might have gone wrong at Sayano–Shushenskaya, but I haven't been able to find it; if anyone knows it I'd love to see a link.

unlike the guy filming the video and laughing.

There are all sorts of reasons for someone to be at a distance from the site, filming excitedly and even nervously laughing, without that person being a callous asshole or Kremlin saboteur. At the first sign of serious trouble, the first move would be to clear out non-essential personnel, no? The last thing needed around something like that is too many people.
posted by mediareport at 5:46 AM on September 5 [2 favorites]

Note to self: Place order for Alcoa Inc. stock monday.
posted by digsrus at 6:03 AM on September 5

I hope they clean up that oil spill.

It's Russia, the same country that drank one of the world's largest lakes dry in a matter of 20 years. Since the river drains to the Arctic Ocean and they wont be sued by a downstream country, I wouldn't imagine that they will do anything.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 6:39 AM on September 5

That video was way less intense than I had imagined.

True, but in all fairness, the dam is at least 3 miles from the camcorder position, judging by the time for the sound to reach there. The dam height is listed at over 600 ft.

Run away. Run away. Run away.

Great, now I've got late-1970s Jefferson Airplane stuck in my head. I don't think that was the intended effect.
posted by crapmatic at 7:48 AM on September 5

The guy doing the videotaping is an idiot. My first reaction to a possible breach in a dam wall would be to drive away as quickly as possible, preferably to high ground.

Perhaps not an idiot, but one who understands the reality of his surroundings. Assuming one even has access to a car, the nearest safety is some distance away. I don't think you quite grasp the scale here, or the dynamics of such a large amount of water. Look at that valley. Bust out the dam suddenly and the entire thing won't just nicely fill to the brim and stop - it'll wash violently up and over the brim, pulverizing everything in its path. The guy probably realizes if the dam is gonna let go at all he's already just flotsam on the tide. Nervous laughter indeed.
posted by Hovercraft Eel at 8:10 AM on September 5

Dumsnill, that video was the most intense thing I have ever seen. No movie has ever moved me to feel horror like that. I guess it has unlooked som sort of phobia for me.
posted by Catfry at 9:00 AM on September 5

The guy doing the videotaping is an idiot. My first reaction to a possible breach in a dam wall would be to drive away as quickly as possible, preferably to high ground.

Get out of here Stalker!
posted by carfilhiot at 9:39 AM on September 5

There wasn't a breach in the dam. That water was coming out of the feed pipe to one of the turbines in the power house because the turbine housing had ruptured.
posted by Chocolate Pickle at 10:30 AM on September 5

My old man worked in hyrdo -- Grand Coulee, Hoover, Shasta and others -- and as a kid he'd take me to work on the weekend into the powerhouse so this piqued my interest. Most of the time I was in the powerhouses were on weekends and the place was empty of workers. The control rooms were way off to the side and so a similar event there wouldn't hurt the staff so the number of reported deaths is pretty high. But if it happened when there were a lot of workers in the power plant making repairs or performing maintenance it could happen. And, of course, it is like the dams in the US that offer tours, others could have been involved.

As a young kid I was very scared of the dam failing while visiting pops at work.I'd also worry if he was going to be OK while at work. Although the workers in the dams he worked at practiced the utmost safety precautions, things like that could have happened, but the biggest fear at the time was that these dams would the targets of Russian nukes. Back then dad would tell me about how there'd be drills for such things as well as terrorist attacks (domestic terrorists or Russian commandos scaling the damn James Bond style).

Thinking back about those feeling I had then, I wonder if kids who had dads working at this plant worried about their dad's dam being struck by an American bomb.

One of the things I remember was pops telling me if the dam did fail, the "run for the hills" idea was pretty pointless since you can't outrun the wall of water. The old man didn't sugar coat things.

This event wasn't the failure of the dam but in the power plant and the water coming through the penstocks wasn't that much more than if they'd open a spillway it appears to me. If I were on the scene I probably would have been like the people in the camera shot... keeping at a safe distance but not panicky. Then again, I hope I never be in such a situation to test that.
posted by birdherder at 11:10 AM on September 5 [3 favorites]

My boss tells me there's a great Powerpoint technical presentation floating around...

OP here, here is the Powerpoint presentation.

Please re-host it or forward with e-mail so you don't hammer my cheapy server.
posted by Confess, Fletch at 11:22 AM on September 5 [2 favorites]

Coral cache of the Powerpoint.
posted by dhartung at 12:10 PM on September 5 [1 favorite]

but maybe he knew there were people inside

Or maybe he knew people inside. You have to figure this is one of the biggest employers in town and everybody knows someone. Maybe he was a doctor or fireman, or maybe he was even a person with responsibilities at the dam.

the guy who went walking on the bridge just before the famous Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse

In fairness, the bridge had been doing that for months and it was something of a jokey challenge for people to cross it during high winds. Draw your own analogies, but there were experts saying it was bound to collapse long before it did.
posted by dhartung at 12:56 PM on September 5

The powerpoint does it justice, 900 tonnes of electric gyroscope.

.
posted by fistynuts at 1:22 PM on September 5 [1 favorite]

On the other hand: Do you remember all those videos from the 2004 tsunami? Not only were people not leaving the beach when the water level suddenly dropped dramatically, people who were nearby actually ran down to the beach.

Partly that's education. I live in the Pacific Rim and my primary school did drills for Tsunamis as well as volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. A lot of people visiting Thailand would be from, e.g., the UK where those sorts of events simply don't enter into the conciousness.
posted by rodgerd at 4:19 PM on September 5

Just doing some quick math (yes I am a geek - thanks for noticing) the water pressure at the bottom of that column of water is like 275 psi, which is more than twice the pressure where my air compressor tells me to piss off.

Thinking about what that works out to over the entire rotor housing, I'm impressed that they didn't all explode the first time they opened the gates.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 5:33 PM on September 5

For those reading russian, a thread in a regional internet forum reflects the development of the events as perceived by the population & coworkers. It can be found here
An overview of the events with the most relevant pictures and video from inside the destroyed powerhouse is here
posted by megob at 1:52 AM on September 6

Russians are still debating the cause of the explosion.

"RusHydro invited drugoi - one of the most popular bloggers in the country - to come and take photos of the station and post them on his blog... His very first post from the station generated over a thousand comments...."

Google translation of last paragraph of post:

"Tomorrow meet with those guys who managed to close the emergency valve on top. They say the first one up to a height of 90-storey building in less than twenty minutes. Another, who saved miraculously, managed to swim out of the water and not run away, and ran upstairs to close the same valve. Heroes, in another not say."

posted by Twang at 3:20 AM on September 6

True, but in all fairness, the dam is at least 3 miles from the camcorder position, judging by the time for the sound to reach there. terrible youtube audio sync.
posted by FatherDagon at 7:36 AM on September 6

The aluminium company which has possibly lost half a million tonnes in production capacity is UC Rusal, whose CEO Oleg Deripaska is better known to the public outside of Russia for his role in last year's British real-life political sitcom A Dinner In Corfu. Mr. Deripaska, apparently also a good friend of Saif Gaddafi, and an important player in Magna's bid for GM's European unit Opel AG, won control of Russia's aluminium industry in the wake of the infamous "aluminium wars", which already left over 100 people dead. However, Deripaska was already in deep financial trouble before this accident.

Still, although there are mind-boggling amounts of dosh at stake, I don't think Mr. Deripaska, his bankers, another oligarch, or the Kremlin directly ordered somebody to blow up this dam Also, I don't want to die from polonium poisoning. I nevertheless do believe that these 73 people were murdered. Murdered by the greed with which Mr. Deripaska and others plundered Russia's resources, starving vital infrastructure of the investments needed for even the most basic maintenance.

Deripaska, most recently, was at the center of a well-publicized attempt at populist posturing by the Putin administration:

Instead of a new Novocherkassk, Russia had the ‘Pikalyovo incident' in early June, when Putin publically humiliated Oleg Deripaska, one of the ultimate symbols of Russia's ‘wild capitalism' of the 1990s, during a lighting visit to his cement factory to force him to pay wages and reopen the plant (after Deripaska signed the agreement, Putin demanded the pen back in case he stole it). But Pikalyovo does not mark the start of a populist spending spree, at least not yet. After Pikalyovo, according to Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of Russia in Global Affairs , ‘liberals expected Putin to be everywhere, like Batman, solving all sorts of problems. But Putin understands better. It's only necessary to do it once. Like with the Khodorkovsky trial, people soon learn the new rules'. Pikalyovo was a signal to governors to deliver on ‘social responsibility' and to oligarchs not to rock the boat. According to Trenin, ‘populism is a strategy to preserve power'. And often fake - only days after Pikalyovo, Vneshtorgbank agreed another credit line for Deripaska.

I don't know who is to blame or who benefits, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to hear that there is some reason of state behind the tragedy.
posted by nasreddin at 10:07 AM on September 6

YT AlJazeera news item on it here.
Bit of a mix up in the subtitles at 28s.

Also, coords for Google Earth if you want an aerial butchers.
52°49'32.52"N
91°22'12.98"E
posted by curtj at 4:29 PM on September 6 [1 favorite]

The Big Picture: The Sayano-Shushenskaya dam accident
posted by homunculus at 2:23 PM on September 9

Today's Big Picture provides much greater visual clarity on the scope and scale of the event.

The water geysering in that video? It's coming out of the two catastrophically-demolished turbines.
posted by mwhybark at 2:24 PM on September 9