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comment by WanderingEng
WanderingEng  ·  3193 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Mosul dam engineers warn it could fail at any time, killing 1m people

Or retire the dam. I think the rock has been an issue since day one.





rrrrr  ·  3193 days ago  ·  link  ·  

From the article:

    A second structure, the Badush dam, was started 20km downstream, to prevent a catastrophe in the event of the Mosul dam’s failure. But work on Badush halted in the 1990s because of the pressure of sanctions, leaving it only 40% complete.
kleinbl00  ·  3193 days ago  ·  link  ·  

750MW, though. That's about 7% of their electrical grid capacity, which is already 40% too low.

WanderingEng  ·  3193 days ago  ·  link  ·  

That's one of those politically impossible situations. Either cause a small disaster now (less access to energy) or let a big disaster happen later. I suppose that explains why they used to do (and needed to continue) so much grouting. Anything to keep the energy flowing.

hyperflare  ·  3193 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It's a pretty clear-cut problem, though. Replace the machines and teams, finish the replacement dam ASAP, retire this dam.

The problem is more about policitical will - like most of them.

rjw  ·  3190 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Also how do you find people willing to do it? They're pretty near a city held by Daesh.

hyperflare  ·  3186 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I assume the same way they secured it last time, stationing coalition forces there. Not that that's going to happen.

mk  ·  3193 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yes, that's probably the best solution.