5. Causes of the Sayano–Shushenskaya Power Station Accident

Unfortunately, hydropower plants are not without problems. On 17 August 2009, a serious accident happened at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station in Siberia, Russia. On p. 117 of the coursebook, you can find an article on this accident. Scan the text to find facts to be able to complete this rapid reading task. After you finish, read about this accident in this text, which gives detailed information on the incident.

As you know, the previous reading task asked you to complete the text with some cause-effect expressions. These were covered in the AEL5 course, but take this opportunity to revise them here. Then find out more about the possible causes of the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station accident in this task.

Note: If you feel you need to practise/revise the grammar of cause-effect expressions further, ask your teacher for access to the AEL5 Moodle course, where you can find this grammar point in Unit 5a.