The people's voice., 1959-11-13
Continued From Page One)


ing the invitation to all members OF
the Committee and to several non
governmental u. S. experts. Chair
man Chavez of the Public Works
Committee extended a similar invi-
tation to members of his committee
and on the morning of September Is,
four hours after adjournment, and
two hours before Soviet Premier
Khrushchev arrived in Washington,
team of IL Americans took off for
Moscow.
Members of the team were Senator
Frank Moss (Utah) and Senator Ern-
est Gruening (D-Alaska), members
of both Interior and Public Works
Committees; Senator Edmund Muskie
(D-Maine) of the Public Works Com
mittee; Clyde Ellis, general manager
of the National Rural Electric Co
operative Association; Harry Kuljian,
president of the Kuljian Corporation,
Philadelphia; Milton C. Mapes, special
counsel, Senate Interior Committee;
Harvey McPhail. chief of hydroelec-
trio division of Kuljian Corporation
and former Assistant Commissioner
of Reclamation; Alex Radin, general
manager of the American Public Pow
er Association; Theo Sneed, profess
sional staff. Public Works Commit
tee; Michael w. Strauss, consultant
to Senate Interior Committee and
former u. S. Commissioner of Recla-
nation. and myself.
$4,000 MILES COVERED
We spent 81 days travelling more
than $4,000 miles within the Soviet
Union. by car, train, boat and air,
inspecting 10 dams (four under con-
struction) on seven rivers, four hy-
droelectric Institutes, three dam con-
struction towns, an electrical equip |
ment manufacturing plant in Lenin-
grad, thermal station, a power SUBJ
station and Lake Baikal, natural
reservoir in Siberia which stores
more water than all five of the Great |
Lakes combined.
The dams ranged in size and age |
from the 24,50O kilowatt Zages plant,
built in 1927 in Soviet Georgia, to
the As million kilowatt Bratsk plant,
under construction in Siberia. The
Bratsk plant alone will produce about
as much power as the three largest
U. S. hydroelectric plants combined.
Here are some of our findings
which | believe significant.
1. The Soviet Union is land of
new starts. The u. S. S. r. is develop
ing it's tremendous water resources
on a long-range, multi-purpose basis,
on crash schedule.
2. The U. S. S. R. puts most of its
power into heavy industry, much
more than does the u. S. with it's
heavy residential and commercial use
of power. This means that, although
total (hydro and thermaD u. S.
power production is substantially
greater in the U. S. than in the So
Wet Union, if present rates of con-
struction and ALLEGATION are main
tanned in both countries the Soviet
Union will have more power avail
able for heavy industry than will this
country by 1865 or sooner.
8. The Soviet Union is transmitting
power long distances and tying it
together in giant grid systems
through use of high-voltage trans
mission which sends the power hun
dreds of miles from remote dams to
cities and factories. We saw several
400-kilowatt transmission lines, some
of which have successfully been
tested at 500 kilovolts. They plan
to build 700-kilovolt lines. In con-
trast, the heaviest transmission lines
in the u. S. are 345 kilovolt (there
are very few of these) and power
systems are generally not intercon-
nected in the U. S. Low-voltage lines '
can't transmit power as far as the I
lines, and lack of inter '
means of course that one I
area may have power surplus and
another area a power shortage, but t
without interconnection the surplus c
power cannot be utilized.
A. Soviet hydro-generation equip
turbines, etc.-is l
If excellent quality. All such equip
nent is built in the Soviet Union,
which exports such items to 35 coun- q
ries. Biggest U. S. generators are :
he 100000 XIV. capacity units at B
irand Coulee. We saw bigger units
han those in operation and the