Ceausescu's subterranean <http://waz.euobserver.com/887/30370/?rk=1> dam
CLAUDIU PADUREAN 25.06.2010 @ 20:07 CET Nicolae Ceausescu, Romania's paranoid dictator before 1989, had built a subterranean dam in the mountains of Transylvania. Able to survive even the most ferocious bombardments, it still functions today. But it is considered an installation of strategic importance and so is closed to the public. Built 34 years ago in Transylvania, close to the village of Marisel, in an artificial cave dug deep into the Apuseni mountains, the secret hydroelectric plant is the second biggest energy producing plant built on Romania's inner water grids (as opposed to a plant built on the Danube, at Portile de Fier, on the border with Serbia). Obsessed with preparing the country against the unknown attacker - Romania's dictator Nicolae Ceausescu (Photo: Romania Libera) Ceausescu was obsessed by the imminence of war, so the Marisel plant was meant to supply the whole Transylvanian industrial network with energy. The plant can produce electric power of up to 220 megawatts, enough to keep ten large steel mills running, or to provide enough electricity for the public illumination of all the cities in northern Transylvania. In case of war, the Transylvanian steel mills were to forge weapons and military hardware using the energy coming from the Marisel plant. In order to keep it secret, the plant and its dam were built only by Romanian engineers and workforce. All the machinery and the materials used were also Romanian. The mountain site is leafy and hosts a ski resort at its top. On one of its lower slopes there is inconspicuous gate, devised to look like the gate to a mine, but actually the entrance to the power plant. It gets its water from the neighbouring Belis lake, brought to the hydraulic turbines via a canal cut through solid rock. The cavity hosting the subterranean plant itself is as high as a ten-storey building. To get there, the rare visitors allowed in have to go through a one km-long tunnel. Permission to visit is granted only exceptionally by the authorities. Some locals think that the plant would make an attractive tourist destination. But others are sceptical. "The risks are immense," says Traian Maris, the mayor of the neighbouring village of Marisel. "Just think what would happen if a madman could carry a bomb inside." Twenty years after the overthrow of the communist regime, the plant is still operational and the energy produced is sold abroad. Employees receive visitors with the high-brow attitude of the priests of some ancient cult. In fact, daily life inside the mountain does not have a lot to offer. "All we have to do is push some buttons, make sure there are at least 70 megawatts produced and take care of the machinery", is how Ioan Varvari, a foreman at the plant, and one of the few employees remaining from the "old days," describes his day-to-day routine. He remembers the excitement of Ceausescu's visits to the plant, when the underground dam and the mountain site were swarming with plainclothes secret service agents. To this day, the mystery remains unresolved as to who exactly was the enemy from which the plant was supposed to be hidden. Given its location in the West of Romania and the reliance on the Transylvanian industrial network, an invasion clearly was not expected from the West. Built in the 1970s, after Romania's breakaway from the USSR and Ceausescu's refusal to send troops for the suppression of the 1968 Prague Spring, the Marisel plant is a footnote to an as yet unwritten chapter of the real history of eastern European communism. C 2010 WAZ Media Group & EUobserver.com ---------------------------- Vali "Noble blood is an accident of fortune; noble actions are the chief mark of greatness." "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace." Aboneaza-te la <mailto:ngo_list-subscr...@yahoogroups.com> ngo_list: o alternativa moderata (un pic) la [ngolist] Please consider the environment - do you really need to print this email?
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