Cripes!

Yes, seen that before.

Hydro has the highest number of immediate deaths (mainly due to dam collapses), coal has the largest long term deaths (mining, direct pollution) without thinking about climate change
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_accidents

Progress on reducing the use of coal has been dramatic in the UK oiver the last 5 years : As recently as 2015, on many days of the year, coal contributed more than 50 per cent of the power used by the grid, and it still made up 25 per cent of the total power mix in 2016, according to records kept by Drax Electric Insights. … Overall, coal contributed just 2.1 per cent of the country’s total power mix in 2019.

I think it is below 1% now.

@WCA – would you consider this a world class accident?

A bit messy but not really up there with the Bhopal and Chernobyl levels

Bhopal. Eff that was soooo awful.

Never underestimate the effect of management disinterest, especially when you rank up the scale

“Plainly Difficult” channel on Youtube has done a wee video on this. Very interesting & I’d never heard of this until about a month ago. Made a right mess \o/

drill a hole and watch your drilling rig, surround barges, boats, then the whole lake 65 acres of the surrounding woodland vanish into it

for desert …. reverse the flow of a river, so that it flows inland from the ocean, temporarily forming the largest waterfall in Louisiana  and creating a new inland sea

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Peigneur

yep, reads very similar to Chernobyl – everyone in charge ignores all the rules and eventually it all goes tits up.

Not on the same level but this could have been very very bad

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-39153163

I like this one.

In September 1980, at Titan II silo 374-7 near Damascus, Arkansas, a technician dropped an 8 lb (3.6 kg) socket that fell 70 ft (21 m), bounced off a thrust mount, and broke the skin of the missile’s first stage, over eight hours prior to an eventual explosion. The puncture occurred about 6:30 p.m. and when a leak was detected shortly after, the silo was flooded with water and civilian authorities were advised to evacuate the area. As the problem was being attended to at around 3 a.m., leaking rocket fuel ignited and blew the 8,000 lb (3,630 kg) nuclear warhead out of the silo. It landed harmlessly several hundred feet away

Which was nice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(rocket_family)#Accidents_at_Titan_II_silos

This wasn’t the hydro power disaster I thought it was going to be; wasn’t there another (again in Russia, I think) where a transformer failed, and many MW of load was suddenly removed from the turbines with dramatic results?

I can’t find anything about it now though; I thought there was even a video…

Edit: nothing jumps out on the wiki list of hydroelectric power station disasters. Maybe I’m going mad.

I like this one.

In September 1980, at Titan II silo 374-7 near Damascus, Arkansas, a technician dropped an 8 lb (3.6 kg) socket that fell 70 ft (21 m), bounced off a thrust mount, and broke the skin of the missile’s first stage, over eight hours prior to an eventual explosion. The puncture occurred about 6:30 p.m. and when a leak was detected shortly after, the silo was flooded with water and civilian authorities were advised to evacuate the area. As the problem was being attended to at around 3 a.m., leaking rocket fuel ignited and blew the 8,000 lb (3,630 kg) nuclear warhead out of the silo. It landed harmlessly several hundred feet away

Which was nice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(rocket_family)#Accidents_at_Titan_II_silos

That story is told in the documentary Command and Control.

IMDB Linky

I watched it on Netflix but I don’t think its on there anymore. Spine tingling stuff.

^^ Its also covered in a very good book with the same name.

I had a call on Christmas day after the side of a viaduct fell off during construction work. Not quite on the same scale but still makes for grim viewing when people could have easily been hurt.

The one I like is the Salton Sea, its a nicer story than any above as I don’t think anyone died essentially a brain fart by a bunch of hydro engineers in 1905 re-directed the entire volume of the Colorado river for a full two years and ended up as a large lake in southern California.

To this day its still the largest lake in California, although as there is almost no inflow its becoming increasing saline and nothing can live in it, its basically turned into a toxic puddle.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darvaza_gas_crater

That’s gone quite badly…

View post on imgur.com

If I had a bad morning at work (✈), it’d be about 2-300 dead, however I’m banking on me not screwing up!

However, that first link is pretty mind-blowing when you look at the physics and forces involved…..the size of those turbines 😮

I’m not sure I’d be hanging around to film that landslide above^^!

Anyway, let’s all hope we manage to work safely!

phiiiiil
Full Member

This wasn’t the hydro power disaster I thought it was going to be; wasn’t there another (again in Russia, I think) where a transformer failed, and many MW of load was suddenly removed from the turbines with dramatic results?

I can’t find anything about it now though; I thought there was even a video…

Edit: nothing jumps out on the wiki list of hydroelectric power station disasters. Maybe I’m going mad.
Posted 6 hours ago
Reply | Report

Possibly the same incident, there’s a bit in there about a report which attributed the failure to power/water flow being cut too rapidly to keep the frequency stable which caused water hammer.