Nurek Dam

The Nurek Dam in Tajikistan in Central Asia with 300 meters height, the currently highest dam of the world and could be the second highest, if it is built as high as originally planned after completion of the Rogun dam.

Dam

The Nurek Dam dams the river Vakhsh, a tributary of the Amu Darya River, about 50 km east of the Tajik capital, Dushanbe below the Rogun dam under construction. It was built in 1961-1980. The dam has a 704 m long rockfill dam with impervious core and a building volume of 54 million cubic meters (according to other sources, 58 million m³). The dam is sealed with an inner core of clay / tone, which reaches 16 m below the river bed. The area is very prone to earthquakes, which is why a rockfill dam elected and no concrete was used.

Reservoir

The memory space of the reservoir is 10.5 billion cubic meters, the water surface is 98 km ². An alternative specification for the water area is 106 km ² or even 185 km ².

A hydroelectric power plant with nine turbines generated a total rated capacity of 2,700 megawatts initially, after conversion now even 3000 megawatts. This is sufficient to supply almost all of Tajikistan with electricity.

The reservoir is also used for irrigation of 70,000 hectares of agricultural land.