Russian Hydro Disaster

[Luv2play]

It seems like another life for me but when I saw the reports on the news tonight of the Russian hydro disaster, I was reminded of my own experience. As a young engineering student in 1968, I worked for the summer on the hydro electric construction project at Churchill Falls, in Labrador, Canada. It was an amazing experience.

 

The Labrador project at the time, I believe, was the largest hydro project in Canada's history, which has now been overtaken by hydro installations in Quebec such as James Bay, which supplies one third of the electricity of New York City and much of Vermont. But in 1968, Churchill was a big deal.

 

I remember being taken on a tour of the underground chamber where the generating turbines had yet to be installed. It was like an underground cathedral, an immense vaulted chamber carved out of the precambrian rock of Canada's shield. Lights were strung along the roof that gave the impression of a church, just waiting for the organ to strike up.

 

When I saw the disaster that befell the largest Russian hydro plant today, I could just imagine the horror of water cascading into the chamber where there were hundreds of workers. It would be like the Titanic disaster. I don't know why exactly I was affected but I guess it was the impression that as mere mortals, we are at the mercy of greater forces than we can sometimes control.