#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. In the mid-1940s, it was planned to build a hydroelectric power station on Pyasina, which would be larger in capacity than the Volhovskaya hydroelectric station in the Leningrad region. They even began to transfer cargo to the place of future construction. However, this project remained on the designers’ drawing paper.
In addition to Pyasina, they also considered to conquer smaller rivers – Norilka, Shchuchya and Nalednaya: a whole network of hydroelectric stations was planned on them.
But the Hantayka river was the most promising in terms of hydro-construction. This was noted by Nikolay Urvantsev, who was the first to explore this wild river. In the summer of 1928, with two companions, he sailed along the Hantayka on light canobe boats.
“At the exit of the ledge, the river was squeezed by rocks, and in a narrow throat its width did not exceed 25 meters. There are no rocks in the throat, the water flowed down in a powerful stream, like a jet from a giant reservoir. There was no steep fall, no roiling rapid, but only a gigantic weir on a sloping surface. The dam, created by nature itself, was an ideal place for the construction of a hydroelectric power station”, Urvantsev wrote.
In the early years, at the Ust-Hantayskaya hydroelectric power station construction it was prohibited to start families. The station gave its first industrial current half a century ago.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we told that the Oganer district’s name is translated as “elder”.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
