Text V Aspects of Nuclear Safety

Life without energy is really impossible. Energy permits people to provide long lives and protect them from the callousness of nature.

But all methods of making energy have their risks as well as their positive features. The World Health Organization reports that one of the most serious reasons for growing mortality rates in some industrial countries is the effect of dangerous pollution. A lot of people suffer and die because of the poisonous gases and particles given off by coal power stations and exhaust fumes from motor cars.

Special studies carried out by a variety of medical and other expert organizations have demonstrated that the number of deaths caused for each kilowatt of electricity generated by nuclear energy is much lower, than the figures for any other source of electricity available today.

But the Chernobyl accident in 1986 showed that a major accident at a nuclear power plant could be much more serious than a major accident at any other type of thermal power plants.

The approach to safety in a nuclear power industry involves a number of different concepts. Ideally, at every level there should be some separate body checking up on designers, builders, and operators alike to make sure that safety is always at the top of the list of priority.

callousness	– капризы (природы)
exhaust fumes	– выхлопные газы
separate body	– независимый орган

Text VI Radioactive Waste

Proper management and disposal of radioactive waste is one of the most serious problems and important tasks in promoting the development of nuclear power today. The lack of reprocessing plants for the recovery of valuable fissile materials, the lack of long-term storage, the increasing volume of waste, and the increasing number of current nuclear power plants to be decommissioned make this problem very urgent.

To dispose of nuclear waste they should be classified. According to the level of their radioactivity they are divided into three types: low – level waste (LLW), intermediate – level waste (ILW) and high – level waste (HLW).

Low-level waste includes damaged equipment, protective clothing, air filters and ash from the burning of low-level combustible waste.

Intermediate-level waste includes the metal cans for containing the fuel in the core, gas filters, used reactor components and equipment.

High-level waste is concentrated waste that is produced when spent nuclear fuel is recycled.

Spent fuel rods constitute the main bulk of high-level waste. The basic difficulties of their disposal consist in concentrating the waste to minimize their volume and protecting radiation they emit.

Intense investigations are still being carried out on various methods for waste removal: sea disposal in hermetically sealed containers and deep-ground burial in remote districts. One of the most reliable methods of waste storage is the seabed disposal.

to decommission	– выводить из эксплуатации
intense	– напряженный
investigation	– (научное) исследование
seal	– запечатать, запаять

Text VII The Important Role of Nuclear Technologies

Nuclear energy has played an important role in electricity production for the last half-century. Mankind now enjoys many benefits from nuclear-related technologies. For example, advances in health care and medicine are increasingly dependent upon expertise in nuclear physics and engineering. The fabrication of advanced materials from components the size of computer chips to the largest construction equipment is dependent on knowledge that stems from the nuclear industry. Nuclear technology is widespread and many-sided: nuclear and reactor physics; thermal hydraulics and mechanics; material science; chemistry; health science; information technology; and a variety of other areas.

Investment in nuclear research and development has created new technologies and brings benefits to a wide area, as nuclear technology has a specific character and requires the enhancement of many cutting-edge technologies with varied non-nuclear applications.

investment	– вклад
many-sided	– многосторонний

UNIT XII TEXTS FOR Comprehension