On Sun, 30 Aug 2009 09:22:55 -0800, "John R. Carroll"
wrote:

Joseph Gwinn wrote:
In article ,
Ignoramus17616 wrote:

Joe, it looks like they were repairing some of the water channels
inside the dam, which broke a wall and flooded the control room.

That doesn't explain all the physical damage to what had been a very
strongly built building. Was the water channel broken when the turbine
went, or the other way around?

A water hammer on #2 resulted in the destruction of the rotor which
fractured the housing and threw a 900 ton piece of equipment completely off
it's mount. Water continued to flood the hall through the fractured turbine
housing and since all power was lost, the safety systems couldn't open the
safety gates. All of the afected transformers apparently blew as well and
their oil flowed from the building when emergency power came on and the
emergency discharge gates were opened manually.

That's what I got anyway.

JC
I wonder what was the composition of the transformer oil?
Gerry :-)}
London, Canada