year 2009. Disaster at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station

5 years ago, on August 17, 2009, there was a disaster at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, which claimed 75 lives. Those in the engine room heard a loud bang in the area of ​​hydroelectric unit No. 2 and saw the release of a powerful column of water. Streams of water quickly flooded the engine room and the rooms below it, and many people who were there died. All hydraulic units of the hydroelectric power station were flooded, while short circuits occurred on the operating hydroelectric generators and the station was de-energized.

The Rostekhnadzor Commission came to the following conclusion about the causes of the accident: “Due to the repeated occurrence of additional loads of a variable nature on the hydraulic unit associated with crossings through a non-recommended zone, fatigue damage to the hydraulic unit attachment points, including the turbine cover, was formed and developed. The destruction of the studs caused by dynamic loads led to the failure of the turbine cover and the depressurization of the water supply path of the hydraulic unit. In the opinion of the parliamentary commission, “the constant monitoring of the technical condition of the equipment by the operational and maintenance personnel was not properly organized. The main cause of the accident was the failure to take measures to promptly shut down the second hydroelectric unit and find out the causes of vibration.”