Hope fades for missing 64 as 'too old' turbine blamed for tragedy

Published on Tuesday 18 August 2009 22:03

HOPE was fading fast last night for the 64 workers missing since a catastrophic accident at Russia's largest hydro-electric power plant.

As rescue teams and divers scoured the shattered remains of the machine room at the Sayano-Shushenskaya station in Siberia, RusHydro, the company that owns the plant, said as each hour passed, the chances of finding any of the missing employees alive diminished.

Sergei Shoigu, Russia's emergency minister, said he had no comforting news to give to relatives, although he added the rescue effort would continue. "The territory above water and under the water is being searched. We are awaiting a robot, which is able to work underwater, while three groups of divers are now working," he said.

There have been 12 confirmed deaths already, and if none of the 64 are found alive, it will make Monday's tragedy one of the deadliest industrial accidents since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Producing three times as much power as the Hoover Dam on the Colorado river in the United States, the Sayano-Shushenskaya station was hailed as a jewel of Soviet engineering when it was launched in 1978 on Siberia's Yenisei river.

The turbines, however, have not been overhauled since Soviet times, and the firm that built the turbine destroyed in the accident said it was too old to work safely. "The machine is 30 years old. All guarantees of its functioning had passed," said Maria Aliyeva, of engineering firm Power Machines, adding that the theoretical maximum age of the turbine is 25 to 30 years.

Footage taken by a passer-by with a mobile phone at the time of the incident shows an explosion of water at the base of the vast 805ft dam as tonnes of water tear through the machine room, reducing it to a mangled wreck.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian prime minister, announced an immediate investigation into the cause of the disaster.

Experts and investigators have already speculated that a faulty turbine may have blown up, triggering a deadly chain reaction.

Millions of gallons of water that would normally flow down the plant's spill-way and through its ten turbines then flooded the machine room, drowning and crushing the workers.

Although experts have declared the dam itself safe, the initial explosion prompted fear in towns and villages down river that it might collapse.

The plant is the fifth largest hydro-electric station in the world, and with it being out of action for up to five years, parts of Siberia now face energy shortages.

Russian media have reported that Sayano-Shushenskaya supplied up to 10 per cent of the vast region's energy demand, and reduced supply, and the consequent higher costs, could damage its economy.