We haven’t touched upon the Sayano-Shushenskaya disaster in a few weeks for lack of new news coming out of Russia. Yesterday, there was an interesting story that touched upon what authorities think may have caused the tragedy at the hydroelectric plant.
Nikolai Kutin, head of Rostekhnadzor, the Russian state technical standards oversight body, said that the cause of the disaster at Sayano-Shushenskaya were technological in nature. The automatic systems failed that were supposed to assist in operating the plant. These operational shortcomings combined with the safety mechanisms’ failure to activate resulted in the disaster. The hydrogenerating unit that failed was modernized this past March, yet it did not have a back-up power system. The reason why a back-up was not included in the plan is “unclear,” says Kutin.
Rostekhnadzor is still making its investigation and it expects to give safety recommendations very soon for both existing plants and those that are under construction. Later this week, the commission’s signed report will have a more full litany of reasons for the plant disaster and the (apparently long list of) names of those it considers responsible. Kutin has said he hopes for new staff to be implemented at Sayano-Shushenskaya.
It is expected for the restoration and redesign of the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant to cost much more than 40 billion rubles ($1.3 billion).
It’s still unclear to us how exactly the plant disaster occurred. We’re looking forward to the more detailed report. Hopefully it won’t be comprised of fingerpointing and obfuscation, which is a quagmire you can get sunk in easily when you’re dealing with such a large bureaucratic body.
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