Anyone know of any experts/resources on hydroelectric dams? Detailed stuff about operations and such. I need to break one.
Well, I haven't come up with a lot of specifics, because I'm trying to engineer the dam around what needs to happen for the plot. The stipulations so far: this is a dam below a medium sized recreational lake. The plant provides water for a small town around the lake (maybe 20-30000 people) and a reasonably high tech research lab. The dam needs to be at last 50 years old but probably not more than 75 or 80.
I want to break it in some way that would be catastrophic, but due at least partially to human error. Some things I have thought of are: the spillway fails to open and the dam overflows, construction error or damage to the wall causes it to break (pretty unlikely, I know), or some kind of malfunction with the turbines. Sabotage is a possibility as well.