Hundreds of rescuers scrambled Tuesday to try to locate more than 60 workers trapped in a Siberian hydroelectric plant after an accident on Monday. But with only two survivors recovered, the acting chief executive of RusHydro, which owns the plant, said that most had probably drowned.
At least 12 people were confirmed dead after the bursting of a water conduit that leads to the turbines at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric plant in the Khakassia region of Siberia, according to the Emergency Situations Ministry. As many as 64 workers from the plant, Russia’s largest power generator, were still missing as of Tuesday morning, the ministry said.
“Finding survivors in the flood zone is not likely, but we are searching,” the executive, Vitaly Zubakin, said, according to the Ria Novosti news agency. A former director at the plant, Alexander Toloshinov, told the Interfax news agency that workers could only survive if they managed to stay out of the frigid water.
Vesti television of Russia showed what it said was cellphone video showing plumes of water spewing from the plant and several loud explosions in the first few minutes after the accident.
“There was a large explosion, and the power went out,” said Irina Perepelitsina, a worker at the plant interviewed by NTV television. “The alarm went off, and we all ran to the exits.”
Sergei Shoigu, the emergency situations minister, suggested that a hydraulic pressure surge could have caused water to burst through the walls and ceiling in the engine room of Turbine No. 2, causing it to rapidly fill with water, a statement on the ministry’s Web site said. Investigators from the Prosecutor General’s Office earlier said the accident could have occurred when a transformer exploded during repairs.
Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s general’s investigative wing, said Tuesday that prosecutors were not considering a terrorist attack or sabotage as possibilities.
Meanwhile, the environmental toll continued to grow. The damaged plant has released a vast oil slick on the Yenisei River, the Natural Resources Ministry said. Power was lost to five major factories, which will now be supplied by burning coal, company officials said. Restoring the plant could take years.
Dozens Presumed Drowned at Siberian Plant
