Dam in China, 6 times the size of Hoover Dam, set to begin use

[D.W. Simpson Webmaster]

http://www.digg.com/science/China_s_...d_of_May_(pics)

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/20...nt_4540727.htm

China's colossal 3 Gorges Dam coming 'online' by end of May (pics)
submitted by LabattsBlue 8 hours 2 minutes ago

More than 6 X size of Hoover dam! When the dam is fully operational it will produce enough energy (over 80 billion kWh of power) to power nearly all the lights in the United States! Of course, the flip side is that the environmental impact has been massive - displacing millions of people and threatening hundred of species.

[D.W. Simpson Webmaster]

http://www.digg.com/science/Amazing_...w_600_foot_dam

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/h...dam/html/1.stm

[hotkarl]

dam

[IAm@Work.com]

Every large dam is curved. This is so that when the water pressure builds up, the curve of the dam will actually strenghten, much like an arch.

The picture you show is straight.

Options:
(1) Water pressure works differently in China.
(2) Arches work differently in China.
(3) This dam will fail.

Actually it is probably (4) That is not a picture of a dam 6 times the size of the Hover dam.

[JMO]

I vote #4. I've seen Hoover Dam.

[high9]

Originally Posted by IAm@Work.com

Every large dam is curved. This is so that when the water pressure builds up, the curve of the dam will actually strenghten, much like an arch.

When we visited Iguazu Falls in Brazil/Paraguay/Argentina, we took a tour of the Itaipu Hydroelectric dam nearby and it looked kind of straight to us. Itaipu is/was the biggest hydroelectric dam in the world, in terms of megawatt generation. I don't have overhead photo, so I attach one from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Itaipu2.jpg. Maybe this is what you mean by curved - i'm no expert on this.

On a side note, the tour went to great pains to tell us about the dam's efficiency. Since hydroelectric dams aren't considered enviromentally friendly, they showed us the efficiency (measured as flooded area divided by power output - or its reciprocal, i can't remember) was 11% which is waaaay better than any other dam in the world. I wonder, on this basis, what the efficiency of this dam will be (since i didn't read beyond the 2nd page of the attached article )

[Maine-iac]

Just curious. Why is this in P&C?

[MountainHawk]

Originally Posted by Maine-iac

Just curious. Why is this in P&C?

Because that's the forum Claude hit 'new thread' in?

[Happy Extinction]

Because somebody has to insure it, right?

[D.W. Simpson Webmaster]

Originally Posted by Happy Extinction

Because somebody has to insure it, right?

Yep.

And rumor has it that risk of flooding is a P&C issue.

Very little I've read indicates that this project was a good idea.