For Russians, the catastrophe called to mind the 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl Nuclear
Power Plant in Ukraine, which was then part of the Soviet Union. Speaking on a Moscow
radio station, Shoigu called the hydro dam accident "the biggest man-made emergency
situation [in] the past 25 years--for its scale of destruction, for the scale of losses it entails
for our energy industry and our economy." Some commentators have called the events at
Sayano-Shushenskaya the "Russian Chernobyl." And just as Chernobyl raised questions
globally about nuclear safety, Sayano-Shushenskaya has made other nations wonder: Are
other hydropower plants at risk?