24 August, 2009
Seventy-seven Russian electric utility workers are dead following a massive explosion at a hydroelectric plant 17 August in the Khakassia Region of south Siberia. Workers at the site, Sayano-Shushenskaya, owned by the 60% state-run company RusHydro, are organised by ICEM affiliate Electroprofsoyuz.
Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry warned in 1998 that the country’s largest hydroelectric plant was desperately in need of major repairs, but little work had been done. The explosion occurred in the turbine hall of the dam, reportedly when a faulty turbine combined with a rise in pressure inside pipes caused the horrific explosion.
On Saturday, 22 August, rescuers recovered 19 more bodies, bringing the death count to 66. Another 11 workers are thought to have perished, perhaps swept down the Yenisei River.
A day earlier, on 21 August, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin visited the scene and announced families of the dead will each receive one million rubles (US$31,450) in compensation from RusHydro. Putin said the Russian government will match that amount.
Workers were killed by drowning and crushed by crumbling debris. Some 40 tonnes of transformer oil spilled into the Yenisei. Five of ten turbines were destroyed as the explosion blew out walls and flooded the turbine hall. It is expected that reconstruction will take up to four years, at a cost of US$1.2 billion.
The accident is expected to hike energy prices in the region by as much as 30%. The facility generates one-fourth of RusHydro’s total power output and the plant supplies power to two aluminium smelters of RusAl. The company’s director of corporate strategy said that 500,000 tons of annual aluminium production capacity is under threat, bringing expected production this year down from 4.4 million tonnes to 3.9 million.
Last Wednesday, 19 August, was designated as an official day of mourning in the Khakassia region, some 3,000 km east of Moscow.