Three Gorges Dam: The World's Most Powerful Dam

With a reservoir so massive it even slows down the Earth’s rotation, the sheer scale of this structure is unlike anything the world has ever seen before. While it generates electricity for millions of people, it is also repeatedly criticized for being at risk of collapse. But what lies behind it, is the dam really in danger? In this video, we’ll explore one of the biggest megaprojects in the entire world — the Three Gorges Dam.

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0:00 Intro
0:48 World's Most Powerful Dam
1:38 Why was it built?
3:01 Construction Process
4:17 World's Largest Ship Lift
5:51 Benefits
6:45 Challenges & Problems
8:20 Risk of collapse
9:59 Future plans
11:04 Railway Upgrade

#megaprojects #construction #dam
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[aguyontheinternet]

"Slight bend", general rule of thumb: if you can see it from space, it isn't slight.

[BluganoStudio]

It astonishes me most that of all the negatives of the three gorges dam, the one forgotten most frequently is the loss of temples, artifacts, and ancient Chinese heritage that occurred when the reservoir filled.
They lost so much culture in those old sites.

[slapdat.byteme]

While working in China in the late 90’s, my wife and I cruised the Yangtze from Chongqing to Wuhan while the dam was under construction. We saw the white/pink river dolphins and it was a beautiful cruise through the gorges. In addition to relocating residents from along the river, archeologists were frantically packing up artifacts from caves in the gorge cliffs which would soon be submerged. So glad we had a chance to cruise the river before the dam was complete.

[mplewp]

the problem with a project on this scale is that if it fails the consequences will be massive aswell ...

[Sammiejomitchell]

Retired architect here. We had problems with Chinese cement. It didn’t reach its design capacity on 90 day test breaks. If they built this dam with inferior cement then I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it breaks.

[peterbland]

I am surprised you did not mention the ongoing problem of the high sediment load in the Yangtze river. If not well-managed, it will make the dam inoperable.

[yiffytimes]

You know they built that dam over 3 major fault lines. One having at least a 6.0 a few years before construction. To me it has always been a major disaster waiting to happen.

[speedingAtI]

So many people here are suddenly dam experts.

[mostlyinterested]

Back when it was being constructed I heard a lot of negative feedback from several friends of mine that are mechanical engineers specializing in hydro-electric power. They felt that the flat face of the dam was not an ideal form since great volumes of water tend to look for the weakest points and a flat surface tends to encourage that process. Two of them that were encouraged to visit the site during construction were quite amazed by the entire process and skill-sets of their engineering counterparts on the dam. However the dam construction engineers also advised them that there was quite a challenge with regard to quality of concrete components, forms and pours with many reported defects going unreported due to senior officials either being paid-off or, in one case, one of the quality engineers was also the owner of once of the concrete materials suppliers; an obvious conflict. There was a slow-down at one point to improve the concrete process but that quite-quickly disappeared when Beijing became concerned that the CCP's image was suffering from the slow-downs in the dam's completion.

[FrankJennings]

I agree that in case of failure the curved dam will probably completely disintegrate while a flat one will only partially give way. However on a project this size, I would use the same amount of concrete as a flat dam would require but make it curved anyway. The safety factor would be greatly increased. Any failure would be catastrophic.

[davem]

I remember my wife and I taking a small boat trip on the Yangste in the very early years of construction. It was very memorable, amazing and sad to know what was happening. I Line that would be flooded to was marked on the gorges sides. We took side tributaries with crystal clear water and marvelled at the numerous communities that existed on the banks. A privilege to have seen it. Later I took an escorted tour of the near completed dam wall. Good Times.

[cfergusn]

Not a single mention of the fault line that runs in that area, which has shown increased seismic activity since its construction.

[WayneTheSeine]

I recall a documetnary regarding small ancient villages. It was heartbreaking. These villages were clean as a pin. The women would come out each morning and sweep the cobble streets with handmade brooms. They were relocated into de-humanizing massive termite nest type housing. Most of the men became alcoholics and the families fell apart.

[kenstr]

"Is it dangerous?" Well, it was made in China...

[gerritscharke]

You did a very good video. One point maybe you missed. The mud in river is a huge problem. It’s accumulates year after year. The river is very muddy and I don’t know it will last until the reservoir is full of mud. This is a common problem of dams with muddy rivers.

[lyalld]

You weren't clear exactly what you meant by 45%, so I assume you're talking about Capacity Factor (the GWh actually produced divided by the theoretical maximum GWh that could be generated if all generators were able to operate at full capacity for the entire period, e.g. a month or a year). A 45% Capacity Factor isn't that unusual for hydro plants. If you design for more than that, you'll miss out on the generation obtainable at times of seasonal high flows. However, if you design for lower than that (install more capacity) the periods of high flow to run all the installed plant will be too short to make economic use of the investment you made in capacity. The figures you quote look like they've got the sizing of the Three Gorges power plant round about right.

[kriskyza]

When this blows it's gonna be Epic 💯

[balwinderhunjan]

i am doing a project and this really helped me understand the three gorges dam so thank you

[MiniMC]

If this dam breaks, it would be the worst disaster China, or the world has ever seen.

[sikhandtakerakhuvar]

An article a few months ago said that the extra water put into the local weather patterns by the massive water surface area of this dam is responsible for higher than pre-dam rainfall.