“Giant water meat grinder”: the scenario with the breakthrough of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric dam is named

The energy of collapsing water will be comparable to a hundred tons of explosives

The Armed Forces of Ukraine continue to hit the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station with Khaimersami and Alder. To reduce the damage from the possible destruction of the dam, the station is now actively dumping water. The level of the Kakhovka reservoir has decreased by 10 centimeters. And the water level in the Dnieper below the hydroelectric power station has risen by 1.5 meters, according to the head of the administration of Nova Kakhovka Vladimir Leontiev. What this is fraught with, Crimean hydrographer Sergei Stanichny told MK.

“A decrease in the level of the Kakhovka reservoir by 10 centimeters is very small,” the scientist says. — This practically corresponds to the average intra-annual fluctuation of the water level in the reservoir. It is clear that the channel of the reservoir is artificial, its depth varies from 3 to 26 meters. The retaining level of the dam is 14-16 meters. There are restrictions: the water level should not be discharged below 12 meters.

– Is it critical that now the water level in the Dnieper below the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station has risen by 1.5 meters?

– Most likely, the water level in the dam part has risen by 1.5 meters. Some lowlands along the river may now be under water, but this is not critical. At the Kakhovskaya HPP, water is also discharged because discharge from the upper cascades is also possible. (The Kakhovskaya HPP is the sixth – lower and last – stage of the cascade of the Dnieper hydroelectric power plants).

If you look at satellite images, you can clearly see a long foam plume during the last week.

– Water at the hydroelectric power station is supplied to the blades of hydraulic turbines, which drive generators that generate electricity. Excess water can be passed past the turbines. For this, hydroelectric power plants have spillways. When they are open, they say that there is an idle discharge of water. Water at the Kakhovskaya HPP is now being dumped through spillway gates.

Theoretically, in extreme cases, during catastrophic floods, locks can be used to pass large waters, which serve to pass river vessels. In practice, this has never been done. Now the Armed Forces of Ukraine, inflicting missile strikes, are just aiming at the shipping locks of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station.

“The Armed Forces of Ukraine are hitting both the locks and the body of the dam, but, in my opinion, their main task is to destroy the road that runs along the dam. The dam, in fact, is a bridge, and the only one in the entire territory up to Zaporozhye (there is also a railway bridge).

The scientist doubts that the Armed Forces of Ukraine will be able to completely destroy the dam, the length of which is 3850 meters. In the Soviet Union, hydroelectric power plants and dams were built with a large margin of safety. And the enemy does not have concrete-piercing ammunition. But at the same time, as a result of methodical and purposeful blows, a hole can form in the body of the dam.

– The question is – to what level will they be able to destroy the dam? The volume of the Kakhovka reservoir is 18.2 cubic kilometers, the length is 240 kilometers, the width is up to 23. I calculated that even if the level in the Kakhovka reservoir drops by two meters as a result of the explosion, the energy of the water that has fallen down will be comparable to the explosion of 100 tons of explosives in TNT equivalent. Such potential energy will have water rushing downstream. You can imagine what the destruction will be. Everyone talks about the flooding of territories, but, in addition, mechanical damage will be a very important factor. It will be, in fact, a giant water meat grinder. Shafts of water will grind everything in its path.

The hydrograph also reminds that the Kakhovka reservoir is the main source of water supply for the entire south of Ukraine.

– A large number of enterprises in the Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye regions, and all the settlements located there, are supplied with this water. If the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station is blown up, the level of the reservoir will drop significantly. All water intakes will be bare, they will be on the shore. Why does the Kyiv regime not think about its citizens?