The accident at Kama HPP and its causes

It was 1994, it was autumn, November. The tugboat "Dunajsky-31" made an ordinary routine flight, pushing ahead of itself two barges loaded with fertilizers. He had to pass locks and descend from the reservoir to the lower level of the Kama River. This difference in water surfaces creates the pressure necessary to rotate the turbines of the hydroelectric power station.

Everything was as usual. The caravan of ships entered the upper airlock, and water was discharged from it. The further development of events was a surprise for the personnel of the hydroconstruction and for the crew of the tugboat. Two fishermen, surprised fish on the shore, most likely did not even have time to realize what is happening.

What happened, got its name - the accident at Kama HPP. This is not entirely fair and correct, because the station and locks are different structures. And their history is different, and they are built separately. But everyone understands what is at stake, so the definition has taken root and is now used universally.

The sequence of events is as follows: after the start of water discharge, the lower gate suddenly opened. The rapid flow that arose caused both the tugboat and the barges to drag along, and they, by inertia, demolished the next gate. Everything happened very quickly, within just a few seconds. Fishermen washed off by the waves died, there were two of them. Actually, they were not supposed to be there, the zone is forbidden, but, in their misfortune, they got there.

In order to understand how the accident at Kama HPP could happen, one should remember its history. This construction began in 1932. Five years built the first jumper and gateway, which became the basis of the future station.

Then there were other priority objects - the Kuibyshev Hydroelectric Power Station and the Solikamsky hydro-power plant. The construction was frozen, and the workers, among whom, as was the custom of those years, the majority were prisoners, they were transferred together with the equipment to new places.

After the war, they remembered the canned object, and the work began to boil again on watts (sandy-argillaceous shallows). The project was finalized. By 1954, turbines began to produce the first electricity.

For some unknown reason, the State Commission came to receive the facility only 10 years later. Perhaps the builders did not insist on the acceptance for some reasons of their own. The accident at the Kama HPP occurred much later, but who knows whether it is natural, because it could happen on any of the days of these three decades.

The station turned out to be unique. Unlike other similar structures, it was conceived as a heavy-duty design, which is not terrible even bombing. The dam and the building in which the turbines are located represent a single whole. The generated energy exceeds half a megawatt. In 1913, all the power plants of the Russian Empire provided the same power.

The causes of accidents at HPPs are different, the main one of them is often called wear and tear. This is not surprising, because such structures are erected not for a year, and not even one decade. When the public finds out the age of such an object, people who are not familiar with the specifics of the construction are surprised and indignant: "Of course, such old things should have collapsed!" However, it is not the years of exploitation, but the efforts to maintain the structure in an efficient state.

After the accident at the Kama HPP, the government commission determined that the maintenance of the structure was practically not carried out during the entire period of its operation. In addition, it turned out that the project was by no means impeccable. In this, too, there is nothing surprising, the idea of building such locks is constantly changing, as well as technology and materials.

The accident at the hydroelectric station did not lead to the consequences that would make it talk about it as a disaster. The gate could be quickly closed without allowing a critical leakage of water from the reservoir. The tug was almost unharmed, unlike the gate wings and two barges not subject to recovery. The main reason was the inability of the crew to moor at the airlock, which would prevent a blow. And the victims are two fishermen ...