I. Pronunciation Drills

Ex. 1. Read the words of Greek and Latin origin.

Datum – data, nucleus – nuclei, phenomenon – phenomena, addendum – addenda, erratum – errata, memorandum – memoranda, basis – bases, crisis - crises

Ex. 2. Read the words with the suffixes “tion”, “ssion”, “sion”.

Definition, generation, recognition, examination, contribution, fraction, assumption, reaction, reduction, construction, negotiation, production, cooperation, vitrification, operation, action, depressurization, formation, investigation, proportion, concentration, installation, substitution

Fission, decommission, emission, session, expression, discussion, aggression, possession

Fusion, division, collision, corrosion, explosion, conclusion, exclusion, confusion

Ex. 3. Read these verbs according to the rules of reading. Mind the right stress.

Minimize, optimize, realize, organize, analyze, summarize, occupy, verify, specify, modify

Attain, arrange, attack, occur, support, connect, contain, obtain, escape, observe, absorb, control, supply, apply, rely, employ, survive, derive, divide, detect, effect, direct, exceed, proceed, dispose, compose, oppose, propose, suppose, refer, prefer, increase, decrease, include, conclude, exist, consist, persist, insist, confine, define

Ex. 4. Check-up your pronunciation of the following adjectives.

basic	famous	countable	partial
specific	serious	available	commercial
economic	previous	acceptable	special
magnetic	gaseous	reasonable	initial
automatic	numerous	reliable	essential
characteristic	various	viable	substantial
elastic	continuous	variable	conditional
cubic	simultaneous	valuable	functional
mechanic	spontaneous	suitable	conventional

Ex. 5. Read the words and their derivatives. Pay attention to the stressed vowels.

Period – periodic – periodically

Organ – organic – organization

Metal – metallic – metallurgy

Nation – national - nationality

Industry – industrial – industrialization

Experiment – experimental – experimentation

II. Active Vocabulary

Ex. 1. Arrange the words into two groups: A - adjectives; B – adverbs.

Educational, absolutely, abundant, the only, naturally, available, numerous, well, conventional, friendly, substantial, reliable, only, stable, usually, viable, geologically, harmful, fertile, prominent, incorrectly, total, widely, ordinary, notably.

Ex. 2. Match the synonyms.

A: nowadays B: actually

evidently permanently

a lot of obviously

really mainly

constantly at present

basically a great deal of

Ex. 3. Read and match the English words(word-combinations) and their Russian equivalents.

A: mainly, directly, by means of, besides, therefore, than, only, also, necessary, then, obviously, in favour of, extremely, spontaneously, by correspondence, in the long run, several times more, as well as, permanently, from time to time, a great deal of

B: очевидно, только, в пользу, так же, как и, поэтому, произвольно, затем, в конечном итоге, посредством, кроме (того), постоянно, огромное количество, непосредственно, главным образом, чрезвычайно, также, время от времени, необходимо, заочно, чем, в несколько раз больше

Ex. 4. Read and match the following expressions and their Russian equivalents

A: to take care of, to consist of, to go in for, to take place, to associate with, to result in, to deal with, to heat up, to dispose of, to arise from, to be good at, to be fond of, to connect with, to differ in, to slow down, to look for

B: преуспевать в, иметь отношение к, быть связанным с, состоять из, различаться по, заниматься, проявлять заботу о, искать, нагреваться, происходить, замедлять, приводить к, иметь дело с, возникать из, захоронять, увлекаться

Ex. 5. Fill in the blanks with the following words: major, a fission chain reaction, a number of, the essence, absorption, core, loss-of-coolant accident, hazard.

1. Nuclear power has … advantages as well as disadvantages. 2. The potential … associated with nuclear waste arises from the radiation it emits. 3. The most widely discussed type of a reactor malfunction is the … . 4. Thus, … of reactor safety is to protect the environment from the dispersal of radioactivity. 5. The destroyed … can release catastrophic amounts of radioactive products into the biosphere. 6. Non-productive … of neutrons is less in the fast breeder reactors. 7. A nuclear reactor is a device where … produces heat energy for generating electricity. 8. My … is a reactor design.

Ex. 6. Translate the underlined words.

1. Radioactive waste contains byproducts of fission with very long half-lives such as (плутоний, цезий, стронций). 2. The nuclear power plants do not burn organic fuels and save (ценныe) raw materials for other uses. 3. The thermal reactors have a (замедлитель) to slow down fast neutrons.4. Spent fuel rods (составляют) the main bulk of radioactive waste. 5. The uranium (запасы) are not unlimited either. 6. There are special (устройства) for removing radioactive fission by-products from time to time. 7. In the stars (термоядерный синтез) occurs spontaneously. 8. I (учусь на) the Physics and Power Engineering Faculty.

Ex. 7. Translate the following word-combinations into English.

Автоматические системы управления, занятия, любимый предмет, отрасль промышленности, дневное отделение, выдающиеся ученые, природные виды топлива, многообещающий способ, в случае аварии, удерживать плазму, радиоактивные продукты распада, человеческая ошибка, механическая энергия, защитная оболочка, уровень мощности, международное ядерное сообщество, внезапная разгерметизация, корпус реактора, период полураспада.

Ex. 8. Read and translate the following word-combinations.

Potential hazard, burial site, recovered fuel, short-lived isotopes, spent fuel rods, radioactive remnants, emergency core-cooling system, non-productive absorption, principal categories, water-cooled graphite-moderated channel type reactor, general trend, combustion by-products, solid substances, fissile materials, core-melting, enriched uranium, thermonuclear fusion, non-fossil energy source, major accident.

Ex. 9. Read and translate the sentences

1. The essence of reactor safety is to protect the environment. 2. The general trend of the future development of nuclear power in Russia is towards the construction of fast breeder reactors.3. The fertile raw materials for breeder reactors are Thorium-232 and Uranium-238. 4. The recovered fuel is then reprocessed and the radioactive remnants of the rods are disposed of. 5. The burial site should be geologically stable and should not contain water. 6. Radioactive waste contains by-products of fission with very long half-lives such as plutonium, cesium and strontium. 7. The key to safer nuclear power is a more efficient emergency core-cooling system and a more reliable containment building. 8. Therefore the only way to make thermonuclear reaction possible on the earth is to control plasma by a magnetic field.

Ex 10. Answer the following questions

1. Where do you study?

2. What faculties are there at your university?

3. What faculty do you belong to?

4. What specialists does your faculty train?

5. What is your major?

6. Why do the scientists have to look for new energy sources?

7. What are the conventional sources of energy?

8. What alternative energy sources do you know?

9. What is fusion?

10. In what way is it possible to make a thermonuclear reaction on the earth?

11. What are the advantages of fusion?

12. Where and when was the first nuclear power plant built?

13. In what way does a nuclear reactor generate electricity?

14. What does a nuclear reactor consist of?

15. What kind of fuel do the nuclear reactors use?

UNIT XI TEXTS FOR READING & TRANSLATION

Read, translate and make up 3 special questions:

Text I Nuclear Power

Mankind now enjoys many benefits from nuclear energy. Today, nuclear technology is widespread in different fields: science, medicine, agriculture, as well as industry. Nuclear energy has played an important role in electricity production for the last half-century.

Nowadays, over 340 nuclear power plants supply 17% of all electricity produced in the world, and it seems difficult to imagine that it will not have a more important role in the future. Though nuclear power plants resemble ordinary power plants, they are certainly somewhat different.

Their main difference is in the way of obtaining steam. Instead of raising it by burning coal or oil, the nuclear power plant uses energy from the splitting of atoms, usually from U-235 or U-238. Both of them can be used for generating nuclear energy, but U-238 must be converted into plutonium.

A pound of U-235 can furnish as much heat as a thousand tons of coal. The secret of nuclear energy lies in the peculiar character of heavy atoms, which are able to split into fragments setting off a "chain reaction".

Scientists all over the world are still working on an even more remarkable scheme for obtaining power from the atom.

Some may wish to stop using nuclear energy, but one needs to ask what practical alternatives they can propose.

benefit	– польза, выгода
furnish	– снабжать, предоставлять, доставлять
resemble	– иметь сходство, напоминать
scheme	– cхема

Text II Nuclear Chain Reaction

Nuclear power plants differ from the conventional installations in the way of getting heat energy. They do not burn organic fuels such as coal, gas or oil, so a fission chain reaction is the only non-fossil power source used for producing heat which is used to generate electrical power.

Nuclear fission is the process whereby a free neutron penetrates the nucleus and makes it break up. Splitting releases other neutrons and a great amount of heat energy.

Uranium is a very heavy element, therefore its nucleus is not stable and it is liable to split. Each splitting releases two or three neutrons to support a fission chain reaction. Uranium is the only naturally occurring material which can produce a controlled chain reaction.

It is impossible to start a nuclear reaction and obtain a great heat output unless the process can be controlled. Therefore there are special materials and arrangements to control the rate of the chain reaction. They are usually boron steel rods.

Boron has a remarkable capacity to absorb neutrons and reduce the speed of the reaction. If nuclear fission proceeds too fast, these control rods are dropped into the core. They quickly soak up free neutrons, so that the rate of fission is immediately reduced and a steady rate of operation can be resumed.

to be liable	– подвергаться
capacity	– способность
steady	– постоянный
to soak up	– поглощать
resume	– возобновлять

Text III Gamma radiation

All materials in the Earth's crust contain radionuclides. Indeed, energy from natural activity deep in the Earth contributes to the shaping of the crust and the maintenance of internal temperatures. This energy comes mainly from the decay of the radioactive isotopes of uranium, thorium and potassium.

Uranium is dispersed throughout rocks and soils in low concentrations of a few parts per million (ppm). Where it exceeds 1000 ppm or so in an ore, it may be economical to mine it for use in nuclear reactors. Uranium-238 is the parent of a long series of radionuclides of several elements, which decay in succession until the stable nuclide lead-206 is reached. Among the decay products in the series is an isotope of the radioactive gas radon, namely radon-222, which can reach the atmosphere, where it continues to decay. Thorium is similarly dispersed in the ground. Thorium-232 is the parent of another radioactive series, which gives rise to radon-220, another isotope of radon, sometimes called thoron. Potassium is far more common than either uranium or thorium and makes up 2.4 per cent by weight of the Earth's crust. The radionuclide potassium-40, however, constitutes only 120 ppm of stable potassium.

crust	– земная кора
potassium	– калий
succession	– последовательность
thoron	– торон (изотоп эманация)

Text IV How Nuclear Reactor Operates

A nuclear reactor is a special device producing electricity in which the primary energy source is nuclear fuel. The reactor fuel is a fissile substance in the form of the pellets enclosed in the rods. Fuel rods are usually arranged in fuel assemblies or bundles. Each assembly may consist of 50 to 200 fuel rods. There may be about 120 to 900 fuel assemblies in a reactor. They are placed in the reactor core to undergo a fission chain reaction.

Nuclear fission is a nuclear reaction in which a heavy atomic nucleus (uranium) splits into two approximately equal parts, at the same time emitting neutrons and releasing large amounts of heat energy.

This heat is removed from the core by the coolant (circulating water) to convert the heated water into steam. According to the reactor type steam is allowed to form outside the core (in the ‘secondary’ circuit) or just in the core (the ‘primary’ circuit). Steam is needed to drive the turbines which produce electricity, typically at about 20,000 volts AC. After passing through the turbogenerator the steam condenses in the condenser, which is cooled by sea or river water, and turns into water. Then feedwater pumps make the water start the cycle all over again.

Control rods are installed in reactors to support a reliable performance and ensure their safety. These rods serve for both reactivity control and power flattening. They are made of materials that can quickly stop the nuclear reaction by absorbing the neutrons. Control rods may include boron, carbide, silver, cadmium, indium or hafnium.

The reactor vessel is used to hold the fuel, the moderator, the coolant and the supporting structure. It can withstand high pressure. As for the moderator, it is used only in thermal reactors to slow down neutrons to thermal energies. Typical materials to be used as the moderator include ordinary water, heavy water and graphite. In some reactors water is often used both as the moderator and as the coolant.

assembly, bundle	– сборка (с чехлом), (без чехла)
to undergo	– подвергаться
AC (alternating current)	– переменный ток
feedwater pumps	– насосы питательной воды
boron	– бор
carbide	– карбид
silver	– серебро
cadmium	– кадмий
indium	– индий
hafnium	– гафний(кельтий)