OREANDA-NEWS. September 14, 2009. The first two of nine vehicles carrying construction parts for assembly in restoring the turbine room of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP passed by Achinsk (Krasnoyarsk territory) at 12:30 local time.

The vehicles, with their 40-tonne vital load, left Semyonov (Nizhniy Novgorod Region) on 5 September. At their destination point at the village of Cheryomushki, where the hydro-electric power station is located, the vehicles’ odometers registered four and half thousand Kilometres.

The drivers understood that the load needed to arrive as quickly as possible in order to speed up launch of work to install the structures. The vehicles were accompanied by a special escort along the entire route. The drivers will start their return journey immediately, today.

It has been decided to restore the turbine room roof destroyed by the accident at the hydro-electric power station according to the initial design, using the same technology and materials.  For precisely this reason, the order to manufacture the metal casing for the turbine room of the HPP was placed with the firm ViSta – the leading enterprise producing space frames of the MArchI type, the production facility being located in the town of Semyonov. Over 30 years ago this plant manufactured metal structures for the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP and later, for the Bureiskaya HPP.

Currently, over 2070 people are involved in the accident and restoration work at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, plus 52 pieces of equipment.

The accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP occurred on 17 August, 2009.  At the time of the accident, 9 of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP turbines were in operation (hydro-turbine No. 6 was in reserve).  The total active capacity of the turbines amounted to 4400 MW.  As a result of the damage to hydro-unit No. 2, the reason for which is being determined, water was ejected from the turbine crater.  Search and rescue work at the power station has now been completed and restoration work launched.  About 40 billion roubles will be needed to restore the power station.