The Nome Nugget

Gruening Proposes Yukon's Rampart Dam Project as Biggest in Hemisphere

WASHINGTON, (AP) - Figures comparing Rampart Dam, which he proposes be built on the Yukon River, with other power producers were cited in a Senate speech this week by Senator Gruening.

The largest single power generating facility in the United States up to now is Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River, whose capacity is 1,947,000 kilowatts. The second largest in the Western Hemisphere, which has had a good deal of publicity in the past week because of the ceremonies attending the official opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway, is the St. Lawrence hydro-electric power project, whose capacity is 1,880,000 kilowatts. When the Niagara project of the New York State Power Authority is completed it will have, at 2,190,000 kilowatts, the largest generating plant in the United States. A companion Ontario hydroelectric commission plant at Niagara will be right behind it in capacity at 2,188,000 kilowatts. These two plants on the Niagara will then rate Nos. 1 and 2 in the hemisphere.

All of these would be dwarfed by the Rampart Dam. Its estimated capacity of 5 million kilowatts would represent power greater than that from any other two power producers in this hemisphere, and slightly larger even than that of a huge plant now being built by the Russians at Bratsk, which, when completed, will be the largest in the world.

The Bratsk dam on the Angara River in Siberia will have a capacity of 4.5 million kilowatts.