Kakhovka HPP explosion most likely caused by blowing up underwater passage – NYT

The journalists, referring to experts and after their own investigation, believe that the undermining of the underwater passage to the turbine hall is the most likely cause of the disaster at the Kakhovka HPP.  Source: The New York Times Details: Engineers from Ukraine and the USA stated in a comment to the media outlet that there was an Achilles' heel deep inside the dam.

They point out that the dam was built during Soviet times, so Moscow had every page of the engineering drawings and knew where the vulnerability was. 

Ample evidence reviewed by The New York Times, from original engineering plans to interviews with engineers who study dam failures, confirms that the dam collapse was no accident. The destruction of the concrete foundation hardly happened by itself.  According to two American engineers, given the satellite and seismic detections of explosions in the area, by far the most likely cause of the collapse was an explosive charge placed in the maintenance passageway, or gallery, that runs through the concrete heart of the structure. 

"If your objective is to destroy the dam itself, a large explosion would be required," said Michael W. West, a geotechnical engineer and expert in dam safety and failure analysis, who is a retired principal at the engineering firm Wiss, Janney, Elstner. 

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Ukrainian engineer Ihor Strilets, who previously spent several months at the Kakhovka HPP, also believes that the only explanation for the destruction of the concrete base of the dam is an explosion in the gallery.

According to him, the explosion destroyed part of the foundation, after which other parts of the dam located in the area of the explosion collapsed under water pressure.  The American professor emphasises that the section of the dam does not need to be crushed; it is enough to blow it up enough to be destroyed by water.  He added that it is "difficult to see how anything other than an internal explosion in the passageway could explain the damage".

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