Саяно-Шушенская ГЭС. 2007.jpg

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1. eisai (eisai@freespeechextremist.com)'s status on Sunday, 10-Sep-2023 20:21:47 JST eisai

   in reply to
   Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP (built 1963–78⧸79)
   
   The first photo here reminds of that moment in HL2 where you drop down on your airboat after a fight with a combine helicopter. There’s some woods down there and the slopes are stiff. Except in the game your point of view is from the bottom of the canyon. (This is a tongue-in-cheek semblance, the one with Volga HPP is more clear.)
   
   Photos 4 and 5 show the shore spillway.
   
   This HPP was one of the most complex constructions among those undertaken. First, Yenisei is a big river with a strong current, and the possibilities to dam it were few to begin with. Second, as any river flows from high altitudes to lower ones, it saws its way through the rock little by little. (Rivers are essentially remains of the glaciers thawing.) This process leaves more and more rock exposed to the weather, winds and water erode the rock, it crumbles down into the river and that’s how there are slopes (and not a crack in the earth). In a place, where a dam would be effective, the slopes must be high, but high slopes mean there was a long erosion. These slopes aren’t strong enough to fasten the dam ends to them. The geologists thus have to determine, where the solid rocks begin under the surface. A dam is costly by itself, and the need to make it wider only adds to the cost. However, this is worth it, because the prime cost of the energy after the HPP is built are pennies (in comparison to oil/gas/coal). Happily, the Soviets weren’t cheapskates and the dam stands to this day. What happens, when the investors cut the costs, can be seen on the example of Vajont dam in Northern Italy. Similar in structure, both places in seismically active areas, Vajont is much narrower, but somewhat taller than SShHPP (both over 200 m high), its construction has led to a catastrophe in 1963.
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