At 5:20 Moscow time, power unit emergency valves were manually closed to prevent reservoir water from entering the turbine room. At 7:32 Moscow time a mobile diesel generator was used to power the gantry crane on the dam crest to reroute the flow of water from the turbines into the tailrace. The operation to open the gates to prevent the river from backing up began at 7:50 Moscow time. At no time during the accident was there a risk of the river overflowing the dam. The river's water is being discharged through the tailrace.
An external inspection has found units 2, 7 and 9 totally destroyed, units 1 and 3 severely damaged and units 4 and 5 slightly damaged and jammed with the debris from the metal structure of the turbine room ceiling, units 8 and 10 internally damaged and unit 6 in satisfactory condition. Transformers 1 and 2 are destroyed and transformers 3, 4 and 5 are in satisfactory condition. The state of the turbine units and transformers will be more accurately assessed after water is pumped from the turbine room and all the debris is cleared. ORU-500 (the open distributive device) has not been damaged and is operating normally. As a result of damage to the equipment in the turbine room oil has spilled into the river. An oil slick has made its way to the upper head of the Mainskaya Power Plant, and work to contain and absorb the oil is under way.
The body of the dam and tailrace structure appears to be undamaged. There is no threat of flooding down stream from the dam.
The company RusHydro is quickly reviewing its investment programme to redistribute financial resources to repair the Sayano-Shushenskaya Power Plant and accelerate the construction of the first unit of the on-shore discharge passage and the completion of the Boguchanskaya Power Plant to replace the temporarily lost capacity of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Power Plant.
All the other generating facilities of RusHydro are operating normally in accordance with the System Operator's dispatch schedule. RusHydro is implementing a retrofit and modernisation programme at all the operating plants based on the current and forecast state of the equipment, buildings and structures and using industry and corporate standards.
Chronicle of rescue and repair work at Sayano-Shushenskaya Power Plant
On August 17, 2009 at 04:15 Moscow time, as a result of a hydraulic impact on unit 2 in the turbine room of the Sayano Shushenskaya Hydrioelectric Power Plant in the Republic of Khakassia, the turbine room was destroyed and flooded. A team from the Siberian branch of the Ministry of Civil Defence, Emergencies and Disaster Relief was working on the scene of the accident by early morning.
On instructions from the country's leadership the Minister for Emergencies, Sergei Shoigu, was put in charge of managing disaster relief at the power plant and flew to the Sayano-Shushenskaya site that same day.
Earlier at a press conference at the Ministry's National Emergency Management Centre, Sergei Shoigu said there was no danger of flooding communities due to the Sayano-Shushenskaya Power Plant accident. The dam itself has not been damaged and is in no danger of collapsing.
As a result of the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Power Plant, the power supply to the Sayansky and Khakassian aluminium smelters has been restricted. To prevent flooding the village of Cheryomushki (pop.10,000) 2.4 km downstream from the dam, water discharge through the Mainskaya Power Plant has been increased. Water continues to be pumped out of the turbine room and measures to discharge water from the Sayano-Shushenskaya Power Plant have been planned.
In Moscow, a federal headquarters has been set up at the National Crisis Management Centre of the Ministry for Emergencies to coordinate the disaster relief work at the accident site.
At 14:00 on that same day an Emergency Ministry Il-76 transport plane carrying 21 rescue workers from the TSENTROSPAS unit, special equipment and 4 operatives took off the Ramenskoye airfield outside Moscow.
On the evening of the same day Prime Minister Putin held an emergency telephone conference at the National Crisis Management Centre of the Ministry of Emergencies devoted to managing the consequences of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Power Plant accident.
After the conference the Prime Minister ordered the creation of a government commission to plan for and manage the consequences of the accident and restore a steady power supply in the region. Igor Sechin has been appointed head of the Commission.
Towards the end of the day (August 17) 10 people were reported dead and 14 injured as a result of the Sayano-Shusheskaya Power Plant accident.
A hot line was established to provide current information on the dead and injured in the accident.
On August 18, 2009 during a meeting at the crisis management headquarters at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Power Plant, Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu demanded an increase in the number of people directly involved in clearing the debris to 1,000.
On the same day power authorities managed to boost reserve thermal plant capacity in Siberia as well as the output of the Kransoyarsk and Bratsk Hydroelectric Power Plants. As a result, power cuts and blackouts gradually diminished. Divers continued to work on the site of the accident searching the semi-submerged turbine room of the power plant at different levels.
A mobile laboratory for testing the strength of structures both under and above water was dispatched from Moscow.
Rescue services set up oil-spill booms on the Yenisei River to prevent the transformer oil that had escaped from the Sayano-Shushenskaya Power Plant as a result of the accident from spreading downstream and to protect the water intakes.
There were no cuts in power supply to any communities. As of August 18, 710 rescue workers and 107 units of rescue machinery were involved in rescue work, with the Ministry for Emergencies deploying 366 people and 45 units of equipment, including 10 aircraft (4 planes and 6 helicopters).
During a working meeting on the rescue operation at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Power Plant held later in the day, the Director of the Emergency Ministry's Civil Defence Department, Mr Shaposhnikov, reported to Minister Sergei Shoigu that the lift shaft had been explored that day. Divers had searched the compressor and mechanical rooms and found no bodies there. The workshops and cable rooms of the engine hall are also being searched and the debris in the turbine room is being searched round the clock.
Work has begun to determine the stability of the support structure of the turbine room.
As of August 18, 2009 the death toll was 12, with 14 people injured and 63 unaccounted for.
On August 19, 2009 Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu announced that the search for survivors and bodies was being conducted in the rooms where they were supposed to be under regulations, in particular at levels 327 m, 320 m and 315 m beneath the turbine room. Level 320 and level 327 have been searched repeatedly. "We are searching all the stairways and shafts and listening through the ventilation system which is at level 326 under the ceiling and is not flooded," the Minister said.
The search and rescue at the Sayano-Shushenskaya Power Plant will continue for a week, the Minister said.
"The Emergency Ministry has enough personnel on the site of the power plant and we are increasing that only by bringing in more energy specialists," Sergei Shoigu added. He said clearing the debris may take another two or three days.
Eight specialists from the Emergency Psychological Assistance Centre of the Ministry for Emergencies have arrived in Khakassia from Moscow to provide psychological support to any victims who might need it. They joined the specialists of the Emergency Ministry's Directorate for the Republic of Khakassia who had been working from the first day of the accident.
As of August 19 the hot line operators had received 576 calls. The Emergency Ministry's psychologists have rendered assistance to 220 relatives of the dead and injured. They are working at the Energy Workers House of Culture where people can come for information at any time.
A joint group of 98 rescue workers from the Baikal area and Republic of Buryatia arrived in Abakan from Irkutsk to help clean up the aftermath of the Sayano-Shushenskaya Power Plant accident. They brought with them various equipment, including diving and climbing gear and metal cutters. Many members of the rescue team have experience cleaning up the consequences of human-induced and natural disasters. Divers equipped with 30 pumps and 2 mobile pumps have been sent to the Republic of Khakassia to pump water out of the flooded turbine room at the Sayano-Sheshenskaya Power Plant. Debris continues to be cleared. More than 1000 people are working on the site of the plant.
During the day, helicopters flew 23 missions to treat oil slicks with chemicals. A water area of 25 square kilometers has been treated with 50 tons of chemicals.
The fears regarding a huge concentration of oil in the power plant's turbine room where fuel had leaked have not been confirmed.
During the day two more bodies were discovered bringing the death toll to 14.
By August 20 the death toll had risen to 17.