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12/03/2010
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Sheffield Forgemasters International (SFIL) is to supply major parts to a Russian hydro-electric power plant wrecked by an explosion, which killed 75 workers and injured many more.
 Russia's biggest hydro-electric power station, the Sayano-Shushenskaya station and dam in south-central Siberia, provided enough output to power a city of 3.8 million but has not operated since an oil filled transformer exploded last August.
Most of the victims were working in the engine room, which houses the turbine units, when water flooded in after the explosion.
Six of the ten huge turbine units were damaged beyond repair and SFIL will be supplying hydro shafts for three of the replacement units as reconstruction work gets under way.
The shafts, each weighing more than 100 tonnes, connect the turbine runner to the generator and are so large that SFIL is one of the few companies in the world capable of manufacturing them as a single forging.
The £1.6 million order has to be completed by late summer and work has already started on the shafts, using the biggest forging ingot the company has available.
"Rebuilding the plant is obviously going to be a massive job but it is such an important producer of energy, particularly as a supplier to the aluminium industry, that the Russian government is keen to have it operational again as quickly as possible."
"Obviously, this lends an element of urgency to the order and we have already started work on the shafts and fully expect to complete them in good time. We are hopeful that we may be asked to provide more shafts as and when work starts on rebuilding the remaining turbine units," said Volker Schaffer, sales director of Sheffield Forgemasters.
Related video: Footage of the accident and resulting damage
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Author
Michael Richards
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