Nuclear power

When the problems of acid rain and global warming became widely understood, those in the nuclear industry were delighted. Nuclear power is the clean alternative, they said. Of course, it is true that in many ways it is clean, with none of the emissions of fossil fuel burning. If only it didn't have two little drawbacks - the risk (better appreciated since Chernobyl) of catastrophic accidents, and the insoluble problem of lethally dangerous radioactive waste. So the British experts were smug after Chernobyl: it could not happen here, they said, as management is so much better. But in reality there have been lots of problems in British nuclear power station. In 1956, for example, there was a serious accident at what is now known as Sellafield, the center of the UK nuclear industry. Then it was revealed that records at Dounreay power station in Scotland had been lost, so that no one knew where all the nuclear waste was stored. In fact, the situation was so bad in Dounreay that in 1998 the government decided to close it down.

Quite apart from accidents, the normal process of waste disposal leads to all sorts of problems. High level - very radioactive waste is stored in holes underground, but of course no one wants it anywhere near them, so it is almost impossible to find sites for it. Low level - waste used regularly to be thrown or pumped into the sea. In 1986, a parliamentary committee the wrote: "Sellafield is the largest recorded source of radioactive discharge in the world and as the result the Irish Sea is the most radioactive sea in the world. "Understandably, the Irish were not too happy about this and complained many times. It was not until 1997 that the government joined other countries in banning this system. There now seems to be little future for nuclear power in Britain.

A defining moment came when, in 1980s, the government privatized the electricity generators. It has always been said that nuclear power was cheaper than its competitors. But when plans were made to sell the industry an real economic calculations had to be made, the truth was revealed. Taking into account the gigantic costs their lives, nuclear power was too expensive. No one would buy the industry because it couldn't be run as a business.

Вариант № 2.

1.Вставьте один из модальных глаголов по смыслу и переведите предложения:

1. You … take this book, I don’t need it.

2. It …be cold outside.

3. You … do it.

4. … she be ill?

5. You … do it.

2. Дайте правильный перевод следующих предложений, обращая внимание на инфинитив:

1. He is hard to please.

2. I have very little wool to make a sweater.

3. She has nobody to speak with.

4. I am glad to be helped.