Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Wednesday launched Unit 6 of Siberia’s Sayano-Shushenskaya hydropower plant, damaged in a deadly accident last August.
The August 17 disaster at the plant on Siberia’s Yenisei River killed 75 people and destroyed a turbine hall. The accident completely destroyed three hydropower units and damaged the remaining seven.
Hydropower units 5 and 6 have been operating in the test mode since December 30, 2009. Unit 5 is expected to be launched next month.
Russia’s largest hydropower company RusHydro, which owns the plant, plans to start units 3 and 4 by the end of this year.
The remaining six units, which sustained the most serious damage, are to be removed and replaced with the new ones.
The repairs of the hydropower plant are to be completed by 2014, with estimated costs of over 37 billion rubles ($1.2 billion).
February 24th, 2010 at 11:23 pm
Stories like this makes me personally so sad, I’m sure it’s cleache to ask if we are able to all just simply get along, but how much more of this stuff are we going to put up with?