[EarthResearcher333]

Dams have been very instrumental in regulating flood conditions (via a reservoir buffer & controlled releases). The immense need for water for agriculture & the public created a necessity for managing (capturing) a precious resource.

Your analogy of the charged cap & live bomb is accurate. There cannot be any major flaws - especially in safety factor & redundancies. Losing a dam is not an option.

[Repeal The 17th]

The dam I am most familiar with is the one I grew up around.
This is Sinclair Dam forming Lake Sinclair between Milledgeville and Eatonton, Georgia.
It was built in 1954 by Georgia Power as a hydro dam,
Mama and Daddy took me out there on weekend picnics to watch the lake fill up.

There are 24 flood gates in the old river bed that can drain the entire 15,000 acre lake.
The generation capacity is to the left of the gates,
behind a wall discharging into what we always called the "tail race"
which was a great fishing spot, by the way.
I have stood downstream and watched when 12 of the 24 gates were wide open
(every other one) and it looked liked a flood of biblical proportions.
But, my point is, the energy that was captured here could be neutralized.
I do not see any way to do that at the Oroville Dam.