On Sun, 30 Aug 2009 19:16:06 -0400, the infamous Gerald Miller
scrawled the following:

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?

PCBs and a wee bit of oil, ah reckon. (Um, don't drink the downstream
water for a few months, OK, folks?)

--
Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority.
It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard
the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all
ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to
be good masters, but they mean to be masters. --Daniel Webster