Kachovská dam: Details of the destruction | Blesk.cz

by time news

2023-06-06 11:12:00

“As a result of the detonation inside the machine room, the Kachovská hydropower plant was completely destroyed. The device cannot be restored,” writes Ukrhidroenerho.

The Ukrainian army reported early this morning that the Kachovska dam, which is located in the occupied part of southern Ukraine, was blown up by Russian forces. Russian officials subsequently blamed Ukrainian forces for the act.

Ukrainian military intelligence said today, according to Reuters, that Russian forces detonated the dam “in a panic.” “This is a clear act of terrorism and a war crime,” the intelligence agency said.

It is “obvious” that repairing the hydroelectric plant is not possible, Leontiev said. According to the Moscow-appointed mayor of Nová Kakhovka, the floods will affect up to 300 houses and according to him, problems can also arise on the occupied Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which is supplied with water from the reservoir.

“The uncontrolled drop in water level is another threat to the temporarily occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. Water from the Kakhovka Reservoir is necessary for the power plant to power the turbine capacitors and ZNPP security systems. Currently, the cooling tank of the station is full. Ukrainian personnel at the factory are carefully monitoring all indicators,” Ukrhidroenerho said.

“Ukrhidroenerho is currently continuing to analyze the situation, our experts are working to clarify the extent of destruction, speed and volume of water,” adds the office.

The worst scenario

The worst scenario after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam will occur, if total destruction and rupture were to occur, the largest floods would occur on the left (southeast) bank of the river. According to the latest information, 11 of the 28 fields of the dam have been destroyed. What to prepare for in case of the worst, the blogger shared Lars Wilderang.

A wave with a height of 4-5 m will hit the Antonivsky bridge east of Kherson after 19:00. After that, the water will rise up the Ingulec River, and after 4-5 days, the water will enter Mykolayiv via the Bug River. Several smaller towns and villages on both sides of the Dnieper will be flooded, and if the wave reaches them, it can be very dangerous and cause human casualties.

The isthmus at the end of the bay outside the Dnieper delta (Kinbourn spit) will be heavily flooded and almost completely submerged, although this will occur approximately 50 hours after the dam breach. According to the information of Ukrhidroenerho, the reservoir will be emptied in 4 days – this means that all the accumulated water will flow out and only the natural channel of the Dnieper will remain. In the past, the Swedish hydrological engineering company Dämningsverket carried out a simulation of a dam breach.

The simulated flow at peak would reach 14,000 cubic meters of water per second (m3/s), for comparison the average flow of Niagara Falls is 2,400 m3/s and the average flow of the Dnieper is 1,670 m3/s. The flow will decrease over time.

Aftermath:

  • NPP Zaporizhia – Cooling water supplies to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which requires cooling even for shut-down reactors, are likely to stop.
  • North Crimean Channel – Water supplies to Crimea will stop again.
  • Reclamation of the Tavria and Kachovské canal – Water supplies to the field irrigation systems of Kherson, Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye regions will be stopped, especially in the occupied territories. It is not clear if there is currently processing there, but without water it will definitely lose its meaning. Many towns and villages that consume it from the Kakhovsky Canal will remain without drinking water, especially occupied Berdjansk.
  • Factories – Without a sufficient amount of water, the work of large industrial enterprises of the metallurgical industry in Marhanka, Nikopol and Pokrov will have to be stopped.
  • Ecology – A one-time reduction of water in a huge reservoir will lead to unpredictable ecological consequences: the death of a large number of fish, waterlogging of drained lands and a change in the climatic regime of the region. On the other hand, the sandy bottom would open up and a new desert would be obtained with all the climatic consequences, such as a decrease in precipitation , dust storms and temperature rise in the region. And accordingly, the risk of drought in the fields of central and southern Ukraine is greater.

Under the condition of complete liberation of the Kherson region, the restoration of the dam may take 1 to 3 years, speculates Blesk colleague Natalja Aharková. According to the information of Ukrhidroenerho the station is completely destroyed and cannot be restored. This most likely means that the dam will have to be built from the ground up. Not only the concreting of the main structure, but also the reconstruction of the coastal fortifications and the subsequent controlled filling of the reservoir bowl will take a lot of time.

All the while we will reap the ecological and technological consequences of this crime. Someone will say that perhaps it would be good to leave it as it is – especially since the historical Velikiy Lug will open. AlUnfortunately, the nature and economy of Ukraine have adapted to the existence of hydroelectric power plants in almost 70 years of operation of the station and the existence of a large reservoir.

The lack of water in the Kachovsk Sea will lead to the drying up of fields in the south of Ukraine with further desertification. The Zaporizhia NPP and dozens (if not hundreds) of large factories will have to be closed, which will not have enough water and electricity for production processes. The population will therefore leave the region en masse due to the impossibility of living in the difficult climatic conditions and due to the lack of water and jobs.

Therefore, all hope is in the defense forces and Western partners, who will help to liberate Nova Kachovka as soon as possible and start the restoration of the HPP and the Kachovské SeaNatalja concluded.

The Kachovská dam held 25 times more water than the Orlická dam

  • The Kachov Reservoir is a reservoir on the Dnieper River in southern Ukraine, sometimes nicknamed the Kachov Sea. It is located on the territory of Kherson, Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye regions. With its area of ​​2155 square kilometers, it is the second largest artificial lake in Ukraine, after the Kremenchuk Dam. It was built in 1956. The Kachovská hydroelectric power plant has an output of 350 megawatts.
  • The area of ​​the dam is huge. For comparison: the largest Czech Lipno dam reservoir has an area of ​​48.7 square kilometers, which means that the Kachovská dam is almost 45 times larger. And with a volume of 18.2 square kilometers, this dam retained 25 times more water than the Orlická dam, which has the largest volume of Czech dams (0.715 km3).
  • The dam lake lies at a height of 44 meters above sea level, is 230 kilometers long and a maximum of 25 kilometers wide. It is 8.4 meters deep on average, and 36 meters at its deepest point.
  • The lake freezes in late November to early December, thaws in mid-February to early March. In addition to the Dnieper, the North Crimean Canal also flows from the dam, which serves the dry region of northern Crimea for irrigation and water supply.
  • The construction of the dam created a deep-water route on the lower reaches of the Dnieper and its waters are used for shipping, irrigation, water supply, fishing and recreation.
  • The dam lake reaches as far as Zaporozhyeí, where the dreaded rapids disappeared under its waters around the island of Chortycja, from which the town derives its name (za porihy = behind the rapids).
  • The dam has been occupied by the Russians since the beginning of last year’s invasion of Ukraine. They opened the floodgates at the Kachovská elektrár at the beginning of last Novemberand the dam’s volume dropped to its lowest level in three decades, threatening drinking water supplies as well as the cooling system for the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant.
  • From December last year to February this year, the water level dropped by two meters. Since February, the water level in the dam has been steadily rising, and according to the Ukrainian company Ukrhidroenerho, Russian activities at the dam are behind the flooding of several settlements in Ukraine’s Zaporozhye region.
  • There has been speculation about the possible destruction of the Kachovská dam for a long time. The US Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said last year in late October that Russian forces would likely try to blow up the dam in an attempt to cover their withdrawal from the area while preventing Ukrainian forces from pursuing them deeper into the Russian-occupied Kherson region .
  • ISW stated that Russia has “every reason to try to provide cover for its retreating forces, in addition to widening the Dnieper River, which Ukrainian forces would have to cross to continue their counteroffensive”.
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi also spoke about mining the dam and a possible attack on it.
  • Russian invasion forces have already destroyed other Ukrainian dams. Last September, a massive Russian attack damaged the dams of the Karachuniv Reservoir near the city of Kryvyi Rih, flooding more than a hundred houses. After the dam hit, the water in the Inhulec river rose from one to almost two meters. To lower the water level, authorities had to detonate some of the hydraulic structures downstream.
  • At the end of May this year, the Ukrainian authorities also informed about damage to Karlivská Reservoir in Donetsk Oblast after Russian shelling, which threatened several municipalities with flooding. “Since the beginning of the invasion, the Russian occupation army has been constantly shelling Karlivka, hitting the dike and ignoring the fact that civilians will suffer mainly because of these actions,” regional chief Pavlo Kyrylenko said, according to the Ukrainska Pravda server.
  • The Unian agency wrote that the Ukrainian authorities evacuated about three dozen people there. The Karliv dam is located not far from occupied Donetsk and also the front line.


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