**An accident at Russia’s largest hydro-electric power station has killed seven workers and forced the plant’s closure.**An apparent surge in water pressure caused pipes to burst at the Sayano-Shushenskaya power station in Siberia, flooding a turbine hall.
Eleven people were injured, but towns downstream of the Siberia power station were not at risk, officials said.
Major aluminium plants nearby were forced to switch to alternative sources of electricity after the incident.
Production at the plant had been halted as a result of Monday morning’s accident, said a spokesman for RusHydro, the hydroelectric power giant that owns the station.
Lengthy repairs
Russia’s emergencies ministry said it would take several years to restore the pipes ruptured in Monday morning’s accident.
“I believe that it will take years not months to repair three of the 10 units,” Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu was quoted as saying by Russia’s Itar-Tass news agency.
A special commission is investigating the accident.
The Sayano-Shushenskaya power station is located in the Siberian region of Khakassia, some 1,875 miles (3,000 km) east of Moscow.
Opened in 1978, the station is a major supplier of power to at least two smelters owned by United Company RUSAL, the world’s largest aluminium producer.
UC RUSAL said all of its plants were operating as normal with alternative power supplies.