blueplum wrote: “thee not me, says China”
China scrambling to get into place something to replace the hydro-electric power they will loose (not if, but) when Three Gorges dam fails. Surprised it’s still there.
SS1
Makes sense. It’s been said that the dam has bowed and shifted more than a few inches. So they’re going to have to do some major repairs. Not sure how - drain it? Then it will take months to refill to power-producing level. If they do nothing, it will fail for sure.
Three Gorges Dam survived this year’s once in a century heavy monsoon rains/flooding. The annual peak is the last week in July/first week in August, and the end is about now.
Two key points:
1. The type of design (gravity dam) of Three Gorges Dam is inherently safe, unless there is some massive construction defects, and/or some massive overtopping (or running around the sides) from floods greater than the height of the dam, that might massively erode away the soil on the downstream side.
2, The Government there is firmly committed to releasing floodwaters downstream, rather than risking the dam. They sure did it this year, despite massive crop losses, and millions of people displaced.
This year’s flooding was catastrophic, but the dam is not likely to see another test like that for many years. It was getting hairy, but the risk seems to have passed.