Fatal Explosion At Russian Hydroelectric Dam

stadium writes "An oil-filled transformer exploded at the Sayano-Shushenskaya power plant in Siberia, destroying three turbines and bringing down the ceiling of the turbine hall, which then violently flooded. The dam itself did not sustain any damage. It is unclear how many people were killed, but with 12 confirmed deaths and as many as 64 still missing (all presumed dead), this is a serious incident. The huge transformer had enough oil in it to produce a three-mile-long oil spill slowly moving downriver. BBC News reports with three separate videos. The dam produces a quarter of the total energy of RusHydro (whose stock thus took a steep dive at London Stock Exchange) and also feeds the world's largest aluminum smelter. The damages will take years to repair."

Comments

Reason

[Daimanta]

The transformer was a Decepticon.

Re:Reason

[JeanBaptiste]

I doubt the explanation is so simple.... there's probably more than meets the eye.

Soviet russia

[interkin3tic]

In soviet russia, hydroelectric damns YOU.

Time Exchange Rate

[cdrudge]

From the BBC article:

RusHydro, the operator of the power station, said the damage would run into "billions of roubles" and would take several months to repair.

From the summary:

The damages will take years to repair.

Apparently the exchange rate between countries is so bad these days that a few months just doesn't last nearly as much as it once did.