Three Gorges Dam Survives Flood

[liveonearth]

I don't know if you pay attention to the news about China, but the Three Gorges Dam just survived the biggest flood yet. It could have failed, but it didn't.

Comments

[geordie.livejournal.com]

Do they really think it could fail? It shouldn't, surely? It is new and was surely designed to survive this and much more?

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

They were saying before this flood that it could withstand anything, but the engineers have changed their tune. The dam's capacity has already been maxed. This is not a surprise, actually, considering the size of the three major tributaries, and also the sediment load that is carried by them. The reservoir will fill with sediment decreasing its capacity to deal with inflows. This is well known but China was desperate to have electricity to drive their current economic boom, so other considerations went to the back burner.

[geordie.livejournal.com]

Well, if it does go it's going to make previous flooding disasters look trivial.