1. Put some questions to the text and translate them:

1. What materials are used for control rods in a reactor core?

2. How did uranium and plutonium get their names?

Please, continue...

2. Translate the following sentences:

1. To prepare uranium for use in a nuclear reactor, it undergoes the steps of mining and milling, conversion, enrichment and fuel fabrication.

2. Uranium is usually mined by either surface (open cut) or underground mining techniques, depending on the depth at which the ore body is found.

1. The mined uranium ore is sent to a mill which is usually located close to the mine.

2. U308 is the uranium product which is sold. About 200 tones is required to keep a large (1000 MW) nuclear reactor generating electricity for one year.

3. The vast majority of all nuclear power reactor in operation and under construc­tion require ‘enriched’ uranium fuel in which the content of the U-235 isotope has been raised from the natural level of 0.7% to about 3.5%.

4. The first enrichment plants used the gaseous diffusion process, but more modem plants mostly use the centrifuge process. Research is being conducted into laser enrich­ment, which appears to be a promising new technology.

5. Enriched UF6 is transported to a fuel fabrication plant where it is converted to uranium dioxide (U02) powder and pressed into small pellets.

1. Translate the following material into English:

а) Химический элемент уран: очень твердый тяжелый серебристый радиоак­тивный металл. В природе обнаруживается только в соединениях, главным обра­зом в смоляной обманке (блестящий минерал, цвет которого меняется от коричне­вого до чёрного). Играет большую роль в атомной энергетике.

б) Гамма - излучение - магнитное излучение, возникающее при воздействии быстрых заряженных частиц с веществом.

Гамма - лучи подобные рентгеновским, но имеющие более короткую длину волны. Благодаря малой длине волны гамма - лучи обладают очень высокой про­никающей способностью, очень малой длинной волны и очень высокой частотой. Они распространяются в воздухе приблизительно на 2,5 км, и являются основной причиной лучевой болезни при использовании атомного оружия.

в) Электрон - это частица, несущая отрицательный заряд. Электроны входят в состав всех атомов и могут также существовать в свободном состоянии.

г) Изотопы являются разновидностью одного и того же химического элемен­та, которые различаются по массе ядер. Они обладают одинаковыми зарядами ядер (атомным номером), но различаясь числом нейтронов. И имеют одинаковое строение электронных оболочек, т.е. имеют одинаковые химические свойства, и занимают одно и то же место в периодической системе химических элементов.

2. Translate the following text into Russian:

Uranium Mills and Milling

A uranium mill is a chemical plant designed to extract uranium from mined ore. At conventional mills, the ore arrives via truck and is crushed and leached. In most cases, sulfuric acid is used as the leaching agent, but alkaline leaching can also be done. The leaching agent not only extracts uranium from the ore but also several other constituents: vanadium, selenium, iron, lead, and arsenic. Conventional mills extract 90 to 95 percent

of the uranium from the ore. Mills are typically located in areas of low population densi­ty, and they process ores from mines within about 50 kilometers (30 miles) of the mill.

Atomic Energy Acts defined uranium milling is any activity that results in the pro­duction of byproduct material. Byproduct material as it is defined in the Act is “..the tailings or wastes produced by the extraction or concentration of uranium or thorium from any ore processed primarily for its source material content” but adds “...including discrete surface wastes resulting from uranium solution extraction processes.”

Potential Hazards: The NRC requirements for uranium mills control industrial hazards and address waste and decommissioning concerns. Because this uranium is not enriched, no criticality hazard, and little fire or explosive hazard, exists for the uranium. The solvent extraction process does present a fire hazard, however. The primary hazards associated with milling operations are occupational hazards found in any metal milling operation that uses chemical extraction plus the chemical toxicity of the uranium itself.

Radiological hazards are low at these facilities as uranium has little penetrating ra­diation and only moderate non-penetrating radiation. The primary radiological hazard is due to the presence of radium in the uranium decay chains and the production of radon gas from the decay of radium and radon progeny (short-lived radon decay products).

Mill Tailings: The solid (sandy) waste from the conventional uranium milling pro­cess is called mill tailings. Uranium mill tailings, which contain most of the progeny of uranium, are a significant source of radon and radon progeny releases to the environ­ment. The hazards from radon involve inhalation of radon progeny that may be depos­ited in the respiratory tract. Alpha radiation could be emitted into those tissues and can pose a cancer risk to those workers.