VOA标准英语2009年-South Korea Seeks to Expand Nuclear En

Kurt Achin | Seoul 17 December 2009

 
A South Korean nuclear power plant

South Korea is looking toward a low-carbon future that likely includes boosting nuclear power consumption.  The buildup of nuclear waste in the South creates a problem, however, and Seoul and Washington must reconsider an old agreement to deal with it. 

South Korea's use of nuclear energy is a sensitive subject.  Because of environmental and security concerns, promotional videos like this one are about the closest look journalists ever get of its 20 nuclear power reactors¹.

Those reactors provide about 40 percent of the electricity for an energy-hungry country.

Leaders here think expanding nuclear power is one way to grow the economy and reduce carbon emissions².

But spent fuel from nuclear plants is piling up - 10,000 tons already - with 700 tons added every year, which must be safely stored. 

Lawmaker Choi Gu-sik says that is a problem.

"The Korean peninsula will be filled to capacity with nuclear waste by 2016," said Choi Gu-sik. "Unless we start to reprocess, Korea will be full of nuclear waste."

But South Korea can not reprocess spent fuel to reuse it, because of a 1974 agreement with the United States to prevent a nuclear arms race on the peninsula.

That deal expires in 2014, and South Korean officials want to update it.  The U.S. so far shows little interest.

Technology may ease some U.S. concerns.  Lee Gun-jae is a nuclear physics professor at the Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology.  He says it is important to distinguish between reprocessing fuel, which can be used to make weapons, and recycling it.

"Reprocessing is what France, the United Kingdom and Japan do," said Lee Gun-jae. "You can also call it 'wet processing.'  It is a well defined technology that the military can use to produce plutonium.  Korea has no interest in that kind of technology.  What we're interested in is pyro processing."

Advocates say pyro processing extracts material that can be reused for electricity, but not for weapons, and reduces the volume of spent fuel by up to 90 percent.

But Dan Pinkston, northeast Asia analyst³ for the International Crisis Group, says the remaining 10 percent carries a risk.

"Critics argue that it gets you closer - so you have a more concentrated batch⁴ of waste, and that could be susceptible⁵ to theft or sabotage⁶ and terrorist attacks, something like that," said Dan Pinkston. "So there are still some concerns about it."

What concerns some diplomats⁷ is that any change in the South Korean nuclear status quo may complicate⁸ talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programs.
 

1 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。

2 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。

3 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

4 batch   

n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量

参考例句：

• The first batch of cakes was burnt.第一炉蛋糕烤焦了。
• I have a batch of letters to answer.我有一批信要回复。

5 susceptible   

adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的

参考例句：

• Children are more susceptible than adults.孩子比成人易受感动。
• We are all susceptible to advertising.我们都易受广告的影响。

6 sabotage   

n.怠工，破坏活动，破坏；v.从事破坏活动，妨害，破坏

参考例句：

• They tried to sabotage my birthday party.他们企图破坏我的生日晚会。
• The fire at the factory was caused by sabotage.那家工厂的火灾是有人蓄意破坏引起的。

7 diplomats   

n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人

参考例句：

• These events led to the expulsion of senior diplomats from the country. 这些事件导致一些高级外交官被驱逐出境。
• The court has no jurisdiction over foreign diplomats living in this country. 法院对驻本国的外交官无裁判权。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 complicate   

vt.使复杂化，使混乱，使难懂

参考例句：

• There is no need to complicate matters.没有必要使问题复杂化。
• These events will greatly complicate the situation.这些事件将使局势变得极其复杂。