BLACK-OUT PREVENTION

The avoidance of "blackouts" and "brownouts" is another contribution which MHD generators can make to electric network operation. Beginning in 1967, Avco Everett Research Laboratory and a number of New England utilities headed by the Boston Edison Co. have examined this emergency and peaking role for MHD with the objective of providing low-cost relief for reserve requirements. The exceedingly rapid startup capability of MHD generators makes them particularly suited for meeting emergency and peaking power needs. Avco's experience with the Mark V and LORHO-pilot experimental generators shows that MHD for this type of service can be developed immediately and could make important contributions to peaking and emergency power requirements within four years. A prototype MHD generator for this application would also serve as a clean-fuel prototype for a baseload plant. Its construction and successful operation would substantially accelerate the overall development of all MHD systems. In December, 1969, Boston Edison Co., New England Electric System, New England Gas and Electric Association and Northeast Utilities, in cooperation with the Edison Electric Institute and the Avco Corporation, announced a 1-year program in which a detailed engineering and economic examination of emergency and peaking MHD generators will be carried out. This group has now been joined by the Consolidated Edison Co. This effort should be incorporated into the overall MHD development program.

CONCLUSION

MHD offers unique opportunities because it eliminates the steam turbine in generating electricity. The increased efficiency of MHD offers better utilization of our fuel resources and also results in less waste heat absorbed by the surroundings. The drastic reduction in air pollution and the lack of thermal pollution would be reasons enough to develop MHD. And with no water requirements, coal-fired MHD power plants could be located in underdeveloped areas that have abundant coal but lack the water resources to support a conventional power plant. The advantages to coal-rich water-scarce areas such as our Western States are apparent.

This Nation is faced at present with a rapidly increasing demand for electric energy which is fast outstripping the supply and is faced at the same time with increasing air and water pollution. The United States needs desperately to meet its national energy requirements and at the same time prevent damage to the environment. MHD offers the best promise of accomplishing these two purposes, the need to meet our expanding energy requirements and the need to prevent damage to our environment. A strong MHD development program should be funded, at least in the amount recommended by the Office of Science and Technology Report, $2 million dollars Federal funding annually to reach these objectives.

COMPARISON OF STACK EMISSION FROM CONVENTIONAL STEAM POWERPLANTS AND MHD POWERPLANTS [Basis for comparison: Powerplant capacity, 1,000 MW; coal containing 3 percent sulfur burned with air)

1 Recommended dust emission control in accordance with ASME standard No. APS-1, November 1968.

2 99.9 percent efficient seed recovery and gas cleaning system.

3 Emission factors from Public Health Service Publication No. 999-AP-42.

425 p.p.m. SO, in effluent gas from chemical recovery system.

$50 p.p.m. NO, in effluent gas from chemical recovery system.

Dr. ROSA. Thank you for this opportunity.

Magnetohydrodynamics is a rather pompous title for what it turns out to be, a rather common phenomenon, at least common if you include the universe as a whole rather than just the earth. It has to do with how ionized electrically conducted gases interact with a magnetic field. In these days, astronomers tell us that the universe is in fact mostly ionized gas. It is mostly permeated by a magnetic field which influences its behavior sometimes rather strikingly.

The early attempts to bring MHD phenomena down to earth and study them began at Cornell University about 20 years ago, under the direction of Prof. Arthur Canterwoods. This work was subsequently transferred to the Avco Research Laboratory, and in 1959 we gained the support of a group of utilities to develop this process. This process made considerable progress until 1966 when the project came to a halt because of our failure at this time to raise funds for a pilot plant. Since that time, progress has been slow. However, progress in foreign countries, principally Japan, West Germany, and Russia, has been very great and it is interesting to note that the pilot plant which we failed to get funds for 4 years ago nevertheless will be completed this year. It will be located, however, on the outskirts of Moscow.

This is a very simple device. It is little more than a piped place between the poles of a magnet, but it can handle very high powers and handle conditions which conventional systems cannot handle. For this reason it promises economic electric power with no thermal pollution of lakes and streams which is very important for our fuelrich but water-poor Western States.

It is much superior to conventional equipment which add to pollution. It has the ability to start and stop with extreme rapidity which makes it ideal for emergency and peaking applications, which is to say for the prevention of brownouts and blackouts.

The cost of developing this MHD process through the stage of a prototype emergency peaking plant will be approximately $10 million and it will require approximately $60 million to develop it through the stage of a prototype coal-fired basalt plant.

I think you will agree this is a small price to pay for what it promises to an industry which, after all, must spend something like several billion dollars annually to meet the demands for new capacity and is an industry which is, after all, basic to all industrialized society. Thank you.

Mrs. HANSEN. Thank you very much, Dr. Rosa.

BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS

WITNESSES

RAYMOND NAKAI, NAVAJO TRIBE OF WINDOW ROCK
NORMAN BOWMAN, NAVAJO TRIBE OF WINDOW ROCK
MISS ANNIE WAUNEKI

Mrs. HANSEN. Mr. Raymond Nakai, Navajo Tribe of Window Rock. It is very nice to see you again, Mr. Nakai. I remember with great pleasure the visit to the Navajo Nation that Mr. Reifel and I had the privilege of making.

Mr. NAKAI. Wonderful. We are looking forward to seeing you on the Navajo Reservation again.

Mrs. HANSEN. We will again visit the reservation.

Mr. NAKAI. We are here on the Navajo Indian Rerservation project. This is the same reason we were here last spring. We were pleading with the committee and other Members of the Congress to

Mrs. HANSEN. Additional funds were appropriated last year but the Bureau of the Budget placed them in reserve.

Mr. NAKAI. Not only that, but I believe some of the money that was given to the project was frozen, and I understand that this would be =released. Still the funds are way below what is required to keep the project moving.

Of course, the project now is at a standstill, we might say. We needed additional funds to get the project back on the road so that we can get the project completed in time, which would mean, of course, jobs for the Navajo people. This is our most important need right now, to give these people some sort of jobs and income-producing jobs on Navajo.

As you well know, the unemployment rate is something like 30,000 Navajos unemployed. Still a good portion of the 30,000 are employable. We feel some of the unemployment could be absorbed by the Navajo irrigation projects and other types of industrial developments which we have going on. This is what we are here for, and any additional information that you might need, of course, Mr. Bowman can give. He is director of the resources division of the Navajo Tribe. Mrs. HANSEN. I had the good fortune last year when I visited to attend your tribal council meeting in Window Rock and listen to the discussion by the various members on the problems and their needs. I think I learned more in that three-quarters of an hour at the council than I had ever learned before about the project.

I can assure you the committee has been deeply concerned about this project.

Mr. REIFEL. I know statements are being submitted for the record. It is a real honor for us to sit on this side of the table to welcome the distinguished chairman of the Navajo Tribe, Mr. Bowman, and equally important to have Annie Wauneki whose father was internationally known as a distinguished leader of the Indian tribe, and Annie herself is no less known.

There is not an Indian committee in the United States of any significance on which Annie does not serve.

Mrs. HANSEN. We are honored today to have you Miss Wauneki. We always like to see the distinguished women of America come before us. I understand you have been awarded the Freedom Medal. We are very proud to have you.

Please insert in the record your statements.

(The statements follow :)

STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN, NAVAJO TRIBAL COUNCIL BEFORE CONGRESSIONAL

SUB-COMMITTEE

This is the second time, in as many years that I have appeared before you to request additional funding for the Navajo Indian irrigation project. Last year I submitted a statement reflecting briefly the background of this unfortunate project. I was impressed by your apparently sympathetic understanding and your warm reception. I reported to my people that I had never been more graciously received, and I expressed the belief that it was certain that you would seek to add to the program the modest increase that we so desperately needed.