Special report: Cofferdam Demolition in Three Gorges

    THREE GORGES DAM SITE, Hubei, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Eight of the 14 turbogenerators now operational on the northern bank of the Yangtze River will be shut down temporarily when workers trigger off explosives to blast away the Three Gorges cofferdam connected to the southern bank of the river Tuesday afternoon.

    The move is part of the countermeasures worked out by the State Power Grid for fear that oscillations caused by explosion may affect operation of the turbogenerators at the Three Gorges Power Plant and then lead to chaos in the national power grid, says Li Yong'an, General Manager of China Yangtze River Three Gorges Project Development Corporation.

    "With the countermeasures in place, the National Power Grid won't be turned into a chaotic state even if the remainder six turbo-generators do be damaged amid the cofferdam dismantling," says Li.

    The 580-meter-long and 140-meter-high cofferdam protecting the just-completed Three Gorges Dam will be dismantled above from the height of 110 meters and the demolition is set to take place at 4 p.m., with explosives enough to topple down 400 10-storey buildings, said Zhao Gen, a senior engineer with the Yangtze River Academic Institute, the designer of the demolition project.

    The removal of the cofferdam which was put to hold the reservoir water since 2003 when construction of the dam was going means the Three Gorges Dam, completed on May 20, will formally begin its role in flood control two years ahead of schedule.

    The Three Gorges Power Plant on the northern bank of the Yangtze, where 14 turbogenerators with a combined installed capacity of 9.8 million kw have been in power generation, has so far produced 113 billion kw/hours of electricity, of which, more than 96.5 billion kw/hours of electricity have been transmitted into the National Power Grid since July 1, 2003. Enditem