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MOSCOW — Russia’s top industrial safety oversight official said Saturday that negligence was a major factor in a devastating accident at the country’s biggest hydroelectric power plant, and hinted that high-level officials could face trial over the disaster that killed 75 workers.
Outlining a report on the causes of the Aug. 17 accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya plant in southern Siberia, Rostekhnadzor director Nikolai Kutin described it in chilling detail.
Part of an overstrained turbine unit weighing 1,500 tons snapped off its restraining bolts and sailed 45 feet into the air, he said. That unleashed flooding, short circuits and wreckage that crippled the plant and doomed dozens of workers in seconds.
