Bratsker Reservoir

Bratsker Reservoir
Location:	Irkutsk Oblast , Russia ( Asia )
Tributaries:	Angara , Oka , Ija
Drain:	Angara
Larger cities on the shore:	Bratsk
Major cities nearby:	Cheremkhovo
	Irkutsk Oblast , Russia
Coordinates	56 ° 16 ′ 27 " N , 101 ° 46 ′ 34" E Coordinates: 56 ° 16 ′ 27 " N , 101 ° 46 ′ 34" E
	Data on the structure
Construction time:	1954-1966
Height above foundation level :	127 m
Building volume:	5 million m³
Crown length:	1430 or 4417 m
Power plant output:	4th 500 MW
	Data on the reservoir
Altitude (at congestion destination )	401.73 m
Water surface	5 470 km²
Storage space	169,270 million m³
Design flood :	7th 090 m³ / s

The Bratsk reservoir ( Russian Бра́тское водохрани́лище / Bratskoje wodochranilishche ) is located on the Angara in the Asian part of Russia ( Federal District Siberia ). The construction of its 127 m high dam and the associated creation of the reservoir with an area of 5470 km² and a storage volume of 169.27 km³ was one of the great symbols of the Soviet Union and an important part of its development of the Angara- Yenisei region.

Reservoir

The Bratsk reservoir, which is located in the Irkutsk Oblast northwest of Lake Baikal between Bratsk (by far the largest city on the reservoir) and Cheremkhovo , covers an area of 5470 km² and has a maximum storage volume of 169.27 km³. With this storage space, it is the third largest reservoir on earth. The flooded area is also considerable; it is more than twice as large as the Saarland ; here the Bratsker reservoir ranks 7th worldwide.

In addition to the Angara, the Oka and the Ija flow into the Bratsker reservoir .

Dam wall and power plant

The barrier structure and the hydroelectric power station are located near Bratsk , and both were built in previously sparsely populated boreal coniferous forest (also called taiga ).

The 127 m high dam was built according to the construction principle of a gravity dam from concrete blocks with joints that are interlocked and have little room for maneuver. Their crown length is given in various sources as 1430 and 4417 m. For the height there are the indications 124 and 125 m. The basic dimensions of the dam are 924 m (base length) and 110 m (base width). The power plant was built from 1954 to 1966 with an output of 4500 MW . Until 1970 the power plant remained the largest hydropower plant in the world.

Building history

For the construction of the power plant, the taiga was first cleared and cleared, paths laid out and accommodation built. Initially army pioneers and many Gulag prisoners were deployed, then Komsomol or regular workers. A concrete works that was built at the same time supplied the almost five million m³ of concrete for the dam. Since the brought diesel - generators for the power requirements were not adequate, you had a 628 km long transmission line across the taiga to Irkutsk (thereat power plant built in 1950 to 1959) produced (two-year construction period, until December 1957). In March 1957 (low water) the foundation of the dam began. Since the concrete work on the dam continued in winter, the concrete had to be prevented from freezing during transport. Another problem was the summer mosquitoes, which one tried to control (until the reservoir was filled in 1960) with hundreds of tons of chemicals per year. After the reservoir was filled, the first of 15 to 18 turbines could be put into operation in January 1961. The construction of the reservoir and power station was not finished until 1966. Today around 500 workers are employed to maintain the dam against hairline cracks, etc.

Resettlement

In the course of the damming of the Bratsker reservoir, the residents of 264 settlements had to be relocated. Most of them moved into apartments in new settlements and towns built by the Soviet state according to plan on the bank of the dammed lake or in Bratsk, which was named after a village flooded by the reservoir. The resettlement was reflected in the novel Farewell to Matjora by Valentin Rasputin .

Trivia

The Bratsk hydroelectric power station is the subject of the poem of the same name ( Bratskaja GES , Russian Братская ГЭС) by Yevgeny Yevtushenko , one of the author's most famous poems. It also occurs in the Bratsker story , a short story by Volker Braun .

Web links

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