P.M. BRIEFING : Amazon Dam Saved From Sabotage
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SAO PAULO, Brazil — Brazilian police are investigating an attempt to sabotage the big Tucurui hydroelectric dam in the Amazon region, a spokesman said today.
Eletronorte, the Brazilian electricity utility in the Amazon, said two metal pieces had been welded in place inside a generator in a clear attempt to sabotage the 2,970-megawatt dam in Para state.
“There is not the slightest possibility that it was anything other than sabotage,” Eletronorte spokesman Laercio Silva told Reuters.
Tucurui is the biggest dam in the Brazilian Amazon. Much of its energy goes for the aluminum industry in northern Brazil.
The spokesman said that if the metal pieces had not been detected in time, they could have caused a short-circuit of 13,800 volts and resulted in about $7 million in damage.
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