Showing posts with label sayano-shushenskaya. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sayano-shushenskaya. Show all posts

Another Sayano-Shushenskaya Update

Posted by The Power Generation Blog on Tuesday, September 22, 2009

After news broke of possible corruption that lead to the tragedy at Sayano-Shushenskaya, Prime Minister Putin has ordered a thorough investigation of the accident. On 17 September, Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin accused current and former managers at the power plant of committing "fraudulent schemes" to gain money for the plant. The Deputy PM said that higher-ups at Sayano-Shushenskaya created fake companies that then gained money to do work on the plant. Of course, this accusation--even if proven true--does not positively link the corruption with the failure of the plant, but it does provide a particularly troubling view of the state of the Russian power industry.

Prime Minister Putin has now proposed, besides a thorough investigation of the Sayano-Shushenskaya tragedy, the installation of so-called "black boxes," which can monitor power plants and provide critical data concerning their viability and safety.
Bookmark and Share
Labels: , / Comments: (0)

Sayano-Shushenskaya: The Final Report is Coming

Posted by The Power Generation Blog on Tuesday, September 15, 2009

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.
Bookmark and Share
Labels: , / Comments: (0)

Sayano-Shushenskaya Update

Posted by The Power Generation Blog on Tuesday, September 1, 2009
The death toll at Sayano-Shushenskaya, Russia's largest hydro-electric power plant, has reached 69 people. There are over 2,000 workers involved in sorting through the wreckage, looking for survivors, and cleaning up the ruined plant, which failed due to causes unknown, thus far.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed a special decree giving 1 million rubles ($32,000) to the family of each worker killed in the tragedy.

The situation in Cheryomushki, the town where Sayano-Shushenskaya is, is so dire that a local official has said the town has banned the sale of hard alcohol due to great levels of binge drinking. He said,
"It was decided so to make people stop drinking. Yes, there was a tragedy, funerals are being held, but the uncontrollable consumption of alcohol will cause a greater damage."
Bookmark and Share
Labels: , / Comments: (0)

Some Progress at Sayano-Shushenskaya

Posted by The Power Generation Blog on Friday, August 21, 2009
A new story out of Sibera has some shed some light on the progress in recovering from the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydro-electric plant tragedy. (The Sayano-Shushenskaya is the world's fifth-largest hydro-electric power plant.)

The overall water flood level has decreased by about six feet.
30 thousand (of about 250 thousand) cubic meters of water have been pumped out.
4,650 cubic meters of cement structures have been removed from the ruined plant.

Still, sixty-four workers are missing, most of whom are presumed dead.
Bookmark and Share
Labels: , , / Comments: (0)