Text I Lomonosov

One of the greatest scientists of all times, M. Lomonosov, was born in November, 1711, in the village of Denisovka. From early childhood he used to spend all his free time reading books and studying. At the age of 19 he left his father’s home and started for Moscow on foot.

In Moscow he succeeded in entering the Slavonic – Greek – Latin Academy. Mikhail was a gifted student. He studied so successfully that together with a group of the best students he was sent to improve his knowledge first to Petersburg and afterwards abroad. Lomonosov studied philosophy, chemistry, mathematics, physics, and foreign languages.

At the age of 35 Mikhail Lomonosov was already a professor and an academician. He always tried to find a practical application for scientific phenomena and connected theory with practice.

Lomonosov was a real scientist – patriot, from the very first and to the end of his days he devoted all his strength, knowledge, and life to the development of Russian science and culture. He was a great poet and gave much attention to scientific research in the Russian language and grammar. ‘Our literature begins with Lomonosov’, wrote Belinsky.

The first Russian University was founded by Lomonosov. Pushkin was right saying about him the following words, ‘He himself was our first university.’ He organized the first chemistry laboratory in our country to study the chemical and physical properties of bodies on the basis of the molecular and atomic theory. He also studied the phenomena of static electricity and found that heat, light, and electricity are different forms of energy.

Lomonosov set the development of science in Russia on a firm experimental basis. According to him one experiment is much more important than thousand suppositions.

M. Lomonosov died in April, 1765, when he was only 54 years old.

gifted	– способный, талантливый
supposition	– предположение

Text II X– Rays

X – rays are waves which are several times shorter than ordinary visible light rays. Our eyes are adapted for seeing light rays but not X – rays, which are invisible to us. Most substances except heavy metals are more or less transparent to X – rays, which pass through them as easily as light does through glass.

X – rays were discovered in 1895 by Wilhelm Roentgen. He found that they can pass easily through such substances as paper and wood, through the skin and muscles of the human body. They pass less easily through bones, so that Roentgen was able to photograph the bones of his hand by simply laying it on a wrapped photographic plate and exposing it to X – rays.

Nowadays doctors also use X – rays to examine the organs of the body in order to make the right diagnosis. But very powerful X – rays are dangerous as they can destroy the tissues of the body and affect people’s health.

X – rays are also used to study crystalline structure of materials, to examine parcels without opening them, to analyse defects in different objects.

visible	– видимый
transparent	– просвечиваемый, прозрачный
tissue	– ткань
parcel	– посылка

Text III The Chernobyl Accident

The Chernobyl breakdown happened on the 26th of April in1986 in the course of an experimental test in the plant’s 4-th power unit. The experiment was staged to test the possibility of using the mechanical energy of the turbo-generator’s rotor to supply energy to the power unit in case of a sudden power failure.

The accident in Chernobyl was a chain of fatal errors of human thinking. The experiment was wrongly conceived and incorrectly organized. It was not agreed upon either with the representatives of the reactor’s chief designer or with the nuclear safety research administration. It was carried out with the reactor in operation and with the emergency cooling systems switched off. The rapid increase of the reactor power led to a steam explosion, which damaged some structures of the reactor.

The chain reaction in the reactor was stopped automatically at the moment of the breakdown. However about 3% of the fuel was vented into the environment in the form of dispersed dust. Part of the radioactive products settled to the ground and the radiation levels near the industrial area of the plant were high in the first days.

The population was evacuated from the 30-kilometer zone around the APS. After this catastrophe all the people are regularly subjected to thorough medical checkups. Now the Chernobyl plant is closed: all four power units stopped operating.

power unit	– энергоблок
to vent	– выбрасывать
to conceive	– продумывать

Text IV Why we are afraid of nuclear technology

In the popular opinion, the main danger of a nuclear reactor is due to the possibility that it may explode. It should be pointed out, however, that such an explosion, although possible, is likely to be harmful only in the immediate surroundings. A much greater public hazard is due to the fact that nuclear plants contain radioactive poisons. In a nuclear accident the radioactive fission byproducts can be liberated into the atmosphere or into the water supply.

The Chernobyl disaster compels us to proceed to a new and complete review of our safety philosophy and practices. Safety is always a primary concern for organizations involved in the development of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. One can never know what the main safety trends in the near future will be. There are a lot of fashionable concepts, but only one of them will be always urgent. It is intensive international safety co-operation.

There is no doubt that the history of nuclear industry has seen significant improvements in the safety of nuclear power plants. There are some predominant safety aspects in this field. They are the safety of the reactor design, the safety of the reactor operation, and the safety culture of operators and supervisors.

explode/explosion	– взрывать (-ся)/взрыв
liberate	– высвобождать, выбрасывать
compel	– заставлять
review	– пересмотр

Text V Sustainable Development

Today the concept of sustainable development is widely accepted and the need to integrate economic, environmental and social aspects within development policies is progressively recognized in OECD countries. Nuclear power is no exception, but it has some benefits that enable it to make a contribution to environmental protection. For example, a 1000 MWe nuclear unit uses around 25 tonnes of fuel (derived from about 125 tonnes of natural uranium) per year as compared with four million tones of coal burnt by a coal-fired power plant of the same size. Therefore, environmental impacts of mining activities are lower for nuclear power than in the case of coal and this would apply, although to lower extent, to alternative fossil fuels. The use of fossil fuels for electricity generation leads not only significant emissions of greenhouse gases and sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides responsible for acid rains, but also to significant environmental impacts from mining, transport and storage/disposal residues.

OECD	– the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development
sustainable	– непрерывный
mining activities	– добыча (сырья)
sulphur dioxide	– двуокись серы
nitrogen oxide	– окись азота
residue	– последствие