英闻天下——61 Shandong to Build Nuclear Power Plant with Safety Concerns

 　　The coastal¹ city of Weihai in East China's Shandong Province has started building a nuclear plant to address a shortage of power in the region.

 

　　Power production in Shandong has been largely based on coal-burning, which pollutes the environment but doesn't create enough output to meet local demand. Each year a huge amount of electricity is transmitted from West China to fill the gap.

 

　　Despite the need for a nuclear power plant, there are also concerns about safety issues, as the world still remembers the catastrophic meltdown of Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant 2011. He Yunsheng, CEO of the Huaneng Shandong Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Plant under construction in Weihai, describes the precautions his firm has taken.

 

　　"We have very strict standards regarding the location. The power plant could not be built in regions with frequent earthquakes or with a history of major earthquakes or tsunamis². The region had to be sparsely³ populated and easily accessible."

 

　　Even in perfect locations, low quality nuclear power plants can become a source of radiation pollution. Zhang Zuoyi from the Tsinghua University Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, says this will not be the case with the Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Plant, because it is backed by more than 30 years of research at Tsinghua University.

 

　　The core of the plant is made up of small spheres, each containing 12,000 tiny uranium dioxide particles wrapped in four layers of high-tech⁴ ceramic⁵ coatings. It is within safety standards to hold even one of the spheres in one's hand, according to Liu Bing, another researcher at the institute.

 

　　"We produce 100,000 such spheres in our lab each year. The process is perfectly⁶ clean and safe. We do real-time monitoring of the radiation level. The reading at this moment is 0.39 micro-sieverts per hour, which is at roughly the same level as in a normal environment."

 

　　Even with such safety precautions, operating a nuclear power plant is no easy task. A slight mishandling could spell a disaster, and that's why staff training is crucial. Guo Shiwei has been training at the institute for four years.

 

　　"I am training to become a shift supervisor⁷, which is basically a commander in the master-control room. I am required to fully⁸ understand how this system works, and also to lead a team who can work efficiently⁹ to ensure the reactor¹⁰ runs safely."

 

　　The nuclear power station under construction in Weihai has been developed and designed solely¹¹ by Chinese researchers. It has already attracted the attention of foreign clients. Zhang Tingke is vice¹² CEO of China Huaneng, a shareholder¹³ of the Weihai project. He describes the commercial prospects¹⁴ for the technology.

 

　　"The project will most likely take 6 billion yuan to complete with research costs included. If everything works out, the commercial outlook is promising¹⁵. Many countries in Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia have expressed an interest in this product."

 

　　Zhang says the power plant blueprint¹⁶ covers different models and sizes to fit different environments.

 

　　For CRI, I'm Laiming.

1 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

2 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

3 sparsely   

adv.稀疏地；稀少地；不足地；贫乏地

参考例句：

• Relative to the size, the city is sparsely populated. 与其面积相比，这个城市的人口是稀少的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The ground was sparsely covered with grass. 地面上稀疏地覆盖草丛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

5 ceramic   

n.制陶业，陶器，陶瓷工艺

参考例句：

• The order for ceramic tiles has been booked in.瓷砖的订单已登记下来了。
• Some ceramic works of art are shown in this exhibition.这次展览会上展出了一些陶瓷艺术品。

6 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

7 supervisor   

n.监督人，管理人，检查员，督学，主管，导师

参考例句：

• Between you and me I think that new supervisor is a twit.我们私下说，我认为新来的主管人是一个傻瓜。
• He said I was too flighty to be a good supervisor.他说我太轻浮不能成为一名好的管理员。

8 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

9 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

• The worker oils the machine to operate it more efficiently.工人给机器上油以使机器运转更有效。
• Local authorities have to learn to allocate resources efficiently.地方政府必须学会有效地分配资源。

10 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

11 solely   

adv.仅仅，唯一地

参考例句：

• Success should not be measured solely by educational achievement.成功与否不应只用学业成绩来衡量。
• The town depends almost solely on the tourist trade.这座城市几乎完全靠旅游业维持。

12 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

13 shareholder   

n.股东，股票持有人

参考例句：

• The account department have prepare a financial statement for the shareholder.财务部为股东准备了一份财务报表。
• A shareholder may transfer his shares in accordance with the law.股东持有的股份可以依法转让。

14 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

15 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

16 blueprint   

n.蓝图，设计图，计划；vt.制成蓝图，计划

参考例句：

• All the machine parts on a blueprint must answer each other.设计图上所有的机器部件都应互相配合。
• The documents contain a blueprint for a nuclear device.文件内附有一张核装置的设计蓝图。