VOA标准英语2008年-Britain Approves New Generation of Nuclear Powe

By Sonja Pace
London
10 January 2008

The British government has announced its support for a new generation of nuclear power plants, which it says will provide a clean source of energy and help the country fight gas emissions¹ and climate change. Opponents of the plan say nuclear energy is costly² and dangerous. VOA's Sonja Pace reports from London.

Speaking in the House of Commons Thursday, British Business Secretary John Hutton gave the government's approval for the construction of a new generation of nuclear power plants.

"The government believes that new nuclear power stations should have a role to play in this country's future energy mix, alongside other low-carbon sources," he said.

Hutton said the government believes it is in the public interest to allow energy companies to invest in new nuclear power reactors³ and to facilitate that process.

"Nuclear power currently provides us with around 19 percent of our electricity requirements," he said. "Nuclear power will help us meet our twin energy challenges, ensuring secure supplies and tackling climate change."

Britain has been using nuclear power for more than 50 years, and its current aging reactors are due to close down within the next few decades. The government says it makes sense to allow companies to replace them with new, safer and more efficient plants.

The use of nuclear power has long sparked controversy⁴, and opinion studies show the British public remains⁵ divided over the issue.

Greenpeace is among the environmental groups opposing the government's nuclear power plan. Greenpeace nuclear energy project director Jan Beranek tells VOA nuclear energy will not solve the problem of carbon, or CO2, emissions.

"Even if the UK goes ahead and builds 10 new reactors, they will hardly have any impact on CO2 emissions before 2020 and the impact will be very small," he said.

And, says Beranek, the dangers posed by nuclear energy far outweigh⁶ the benefits.

"There is the questions of nuclear waste, which has not been solved and this is going to remain quite deadly for thousands of generations to come," he added. "And there is a big problem of proliferation, and we believe that with nuclear expansion … the world would actually suffer from undermining global security."

Greenpeace advocates large-scale investment in a mix of renewable sources of energy, which it says would be more cost effective, safer, cleaner and provide energy security. The British government says it is promoting a variety of energy sources, but it says nuclear power should be in that mix.

Expanding the use of nuclear energy has become increasingly important with the rising price of oil, a growing desire by individual countries for greater energy independence, and the growing pressure to reduce carbon emissions to combat climate change.

While Britain gets less than 20 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy, France relies heavily on nuclear power and gets almost 80 percent of its electricity from its reactors.

1 emissions   

排放物( emission的名词复数 )； 散发物（尤指气体）

参考例句：

• Most scientists accept that climate change is linked to carbon emissions. 大多数科学家都相信气候变化与排放的含碳气体有关。
• Dangerous emissions radiate from plutonium. 危险的辐射物从钚放散出来。

2 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

3 reactors   

起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 )； 反应装置； 原子炉； 核反应堆

参考例句：

• The TMI nuclear facility has two reactors. 三哩岛核设施有两个反应堆。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The earliest production reactors necessarily used normal uranium as fuel. 最早为生产用的反应堆，必须使用普通铀作为燃料。

4 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 outweigh   

vt.比...更重，...更重要

参考例句：

• The merits of your plan outweigh the defects.你制定的计划其优点胜过缺点。
• One's merits outweigh one's short-comings.功大于过。