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Eight killed, 54 missing in Siberian hydro electric accident

Eight killed, 54 missing in Siberian hydro electric accident
 Eight killed, 54 missing in Siberian hydro electric accident  - Sputnik International
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At least eight people were killed and 54 people are still missing after an accident at Russia's largest hydro electric station in south Siberia early on Monday, Russian prosecutors said.

MOSCOW, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - At least eight people were killed and 54 people are still missing after an accident at Russia's largest hydro electric station in south Siberia early on Monday, Russian prosecutors said.

"Preliminary reports said eight people, working in the turbine room, were killed, 10 injured and 54 are missing," Vladimir Markin, spokesman for the top Investigation Committee, said.

Ekho Moskvy radio station, however, quoted a senior local emergencies official as saying that 68 people were still unaccounted for at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power plant.

"The fate of 68 people is not known," Andrei Klyuyev told the radio station.

The plant's second hydroelectric generating unit was destroyed and the turbine room severely damaged when an oil transformer exploded as workers carried out repairs. The blast damaged the plant's water ducts, flooding the turbine room and halting production at the plant.

Later reports said the seventh and ninth generating units had also been damaged.

"An oil transformer blew up in the turbine room during repairs on one of the generating units," Markin said, adding prosecutors were inquiring into safety violations as a cause of the fatal accident.

The accident cut power supplies to homes and companies, including metal giants Evraz Group and RusAl, prompting them to switch to emergency power. Six factories in the nearby Altai region were closed down following the electricity shortage.

RusHydro, owner of the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant, which was opened in 1978, said generating units unaffected by the blast could be reactivated within 45 days.

"Replacing the turbine will take from 18 months to two years," the firm's acting head, Vasily Zubakin, said. "The station's units that were not damaged could be restarted within 45 days."

The station - located on the Yenisei River flowing from Mongolia to the Arctic - had 10 operating generating units before the accident.

He said a precise assessment of the damage still needed to be carried out.

 

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