Hydropower engineer Tetelmin told how to restore the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station

In the Kherson region, rescuers continue to eliminate the consequences of the destruction of the Kakhovskaya HPP by the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The main peak of the water rise has been passed. It is already clear that the main body of the dam made of concrete and soil has survived. The upper part of the dam is destroyed – five-meter “bull-calves”. About how much water can remain in the Kakhovka reservoir, what alternative options for supplying water to the North Crimean Canal can be envisaged, whether it is possible to restore the power plant in its original place, we talked with a doctor of technical sciences, academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, a hydropower engineer, professor at the Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia Vladimir Tetelmin.

According to Vladimir Tetelmin, this catastrophe was foreseeable, predictable.

– If the Armed Forces of Ukraine had not shelled the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, it would have stood for another century. The dam has a large margin of safety. It is estimated that more than 80 shells fell on the lock, on the shutters, on the dam. The Kiev regime wanted to arrange this accident, and they achieved this. Moreover, it was quite difficult to destroy this dam, it is made of durable hydraulic concrete. But there were more and more cracks. Each explosion weakened the structure. On the night of June 6, several shells flew in, which, as the eastern proverb says, became “the last straw that broke the camel’s back.” And, in the end, all the wounded concrete “bulls” that held the shutters capsized. And the gates, in turn, kept the hydrostatic pressure of the water.

A tragedy occurred, the water overflowed over the crest of the dam.

– Its upper part, the head of the concrete dam, collapsed. But the dam itself survived. It is impossible to destroy it with such shelling, only if tens of tons of trinitrotoluene are laid down. The dam survived, and this is the main thing.

– What follows from this?

– That only the surface part of this reservoir, the first four meters of water pressure, will overflow through the remaining crest of the dam. And about half of the water volume of the reservoir will remain.

The professor believes that the overflowing mass of water is already running out.

– She would have already all gone into the tailpipe, if the Kiev regime had not dumped water from the upper cascades. Now they are saying that it was not them who destroyed the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station. Of course they are. Otherwise, Kyiv would now stop discharging water from the Dnepropetrovsk hydroelectric power station and, from even higher hydroelectric facilities located along the Dnieper. They would simply block the water with gates and the damage would be minimized. And Kyiv, on the contrary, before blowing up the power plant, dumped a large amount of water into the Kakhovka reservoir. And after the tragedy, the discharge of water from the upper hydroelectric facilities was further intensified.

The same Kherson, controlled by Kyiv, is now also partially flooded.

“Ukraine operates on the principle: “I’ll gouge out one of my eyes so that both of my neighbors can’t be seen.” Now the wave, which was moving at a speed of about 20 kilometers per hour, is already subsiding. There are about a hundred kilometers to the Black Sea. The wave of water has already reached the sea. But the water continues to flow. It will take another couple of days for the water to finally subside.

Will water continue to flow into the North Crimean Canal?

– The water intake of the North Crimean Canal is located directly in front of the dam of the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station on the left bank. Water enters the channel by gravity. If the water level in the reservoir is below the spillway threshold, which directs water into the canal, then the water will no longer overflow into the canal. Then you will have to install pumps and pump water into the canal intake forcibly. In my opinion, at least four units may be required, each of which will pump 10 thousand cubic meters of water per hour. There is no tragedy here, everything is solved. Crimea will not be left without water, because not all of the Kakhovka reservoir will be emptied.

The expert recalls that the design head of the Kakhovskaya HPP dam is 16 meters.

– Water, in my opinion, can fall into the reservoir by 5-6 meters. That is, there will be a depth of about 10 meters.

Also, with the help of pumps, according to Professor Vladimir Tetelmin, it is possible to pump water from the reservoir and into the cooling pond of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant.

– This is again in case the water level in the upper pool drops. The Kiev regime, in striking at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, apparently wanted the accident to indirectly hit the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant. But our side foresaw all this, they foresaw it all. The system of heat removal to the ultimate heat sink at the station can be replenished both with water from the Kakhovka reservoir and several alternative sources. The station staff is in full control of the situation.

In the Novaya Kakhovka area, the water level is decreasing, but the situation is still catastrophic. Vast territories around Alyosheki and Gola Pristan remain flooded.

– Water coming from above will bring a lot of trouble. People will suffer, infrastructure will be destroyed, gardens will be washed away by the stream of water, and there will be no harvest. Pets will die. The water will bring some silt, but that is not a problem, silt will not be a big problem. Now it will be necessary to restore everything, to return people to their homes. What different services are doing now. As for the cemeteries, I do not think that they were located in the Dnieper valley. They are usually placed at high elevations on ventilated sandy soils. Where groundwater does not come close. According to the idea, there should not be cattle burial grounds there, unless, of course, the standards were violated.

Hydropower believes that there will be no major damage of a purely mechanical nature.

– As, for example, it was in 1928, when the St. Francis Dam near Los Angeles collapsed due to a defective soil foundation and structural flaws. Down, towards the Pacific Ocean, a 43-meter wave of millions of cubic meters of water rushed. Then the entire high-pressure structure collapsed. 430 people died. In 1959, the Malpasse Dam on the Reyran River in southern France collapsed. The breakthrough created a wave 40 meters high, which rushed down at a speed of 70 kilometers per hour. The city of Frejus was completely flooded. 423 people died. In 1975, the Banqiao Dam on the Zhuhe River in China turned out to be a great tragedy. More than 170 thousand people died there.

– In your opinion, is it possible to restore the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station in its original place?

— I think it is possible. The concrete that was left there is very strong and reliable. Everything destroyed can be restored. To do this, it will be necessary to carry out new design developments. Restore the “steers” and gates, again raise the level in the Kakhovka reservoir. We will have to rebuild the engine room, change the hydraulic units. In many respects, this will be a new station, but on the same “cushion”-dam, at the same place, in the same alignment. The length of the soil dam there is about three and a half kilometers, that is, the pressure front is very long. Concrete dam – about 500 meters. All this work will take at least a year. But all this is possible only in peacetime.