Japan's Crisis Batters Global Nuclear Industry

    U.S. President Barack Obama says he believes nuclear power is an important source of energy in the United States.
    Mr. Obama said in a television interview Tuesday that nuclear plants are designed to withstand certain levels of natural disasters, including earthquakes and floods.  But he acknowledged that no energy facility is completely foolproof(十分安全的).  He said it is important to work on improving the safety of nuclear technologies.
    A spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Scott Burnell, told VOA Tuesday that any request to build a nuclear power plant in the United States has to take into account the possibility of severe events at any given site, like heavy snow, flooding, earthquakes and tsunamis¹.
    Burnell said the United States will look into all the information gathered form the nuclear crisis in Japan to see what can be learned from it.
    The problems at Japan's quake-stricken nuclear power plant is hurting the global nuclear industry, with stock prices falling for companies that build or operate nuclear power plants.  There also has been a decline in the price of uranium fuel.
    Investor² concern follows the temporary（临时的暂时的） closure of some nuclear power plants in Germany, and plans by many nations to closely review safety issues related to earthquakes and cooling systems that are at the heart of the problems in Japan.
    Nuclear power provides almost one-fifth of the world's electricity, from 442 nuclear power plants. The United States has 104 nuclear power plants, more than any other nation. But France is more dependent on nuclear energy than most nations, getting about three-quarters of its electricity from nuclear sources.
    Another 65 nuclear power plants are under construction, and hundreds more are in some stage of planning.
    About one-third of those new plants are in China, which needs more electricity to power its strong economic growth.  India also has about a half-dozen plants under construction.(本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑)

1 tsunamis   

n.海啸( tsunami的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our oceans are alive with earthquakes, volcanoes, and more recently, tsunamis. 海中充满着地震、火山，包括最近发生的海啸。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年2月号
• Please tell me something more about tsunamis! 请您给我讲讲海啸吧！ 来自辞典例句

2 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。