经济学人 报刊选读 Goodbye Nuclear Power

No one can doubt President Joe Biden’s commitment to clean energy. Unfortunately, his agenda faces a challenge rarely mentioned by climate activists: excessive regulation.没有人能怀疑拜登（Joe Biden）总统对清洁能源的承诺。

不幸的是，他的议题面临着一个气候活动人士很少提及的挑战：过度监管。

A report from the National Academies of Sciences found that if the U.S. wants to reach net-zero emissions by midcentury, it will need to roughly double the share of electricity it produces from non-carbon sources by 2030. Reaching even that goal — which could well prove insufficient to the challenge — would require building wind and solar installations at a historically unprecedented pace.国家科学院的一份报告发现，如果美国想要在本世纪中叶实现净零排放，那么到2030年，它需要将非碳源发电量的比例提高一倍左右。

即使要实现这一目标——很可能被证明不足以应对挑战——也需要以前所未有的速度建设风能和太阳能设施。

As things stand, that’s unlikely. There’s simply too much red tape.就目前情况来看，这不太可能。

UNIT 1 HIESTORY OF NUCLEAR POWER1. The discovery of nuclear fission in 1939 was an event of epochal significance because it opened up the prospect of entirely new source of power.2. The world's first self-sustaining nuclear fission chain was realized in the united states at the University of Chicago, 2kWt CP-1, on December 2, 1942.3. A prototype of the submarine reactor （called STR Mark 1）started operation at Arco, Idaho, in March 1953and the first nuclear powered submarine commenced its sea trials in January 1955.4. The word's first industry nuclear power plant （5MW）was commenced in the U.S.S.R on June 27, 1954.5. The ShippingPort PWR, the first central-station nuclear power plant in the United States, went to operation on December 2, 1957.6. A 20MW nuclear-power demonstration plant in Canada has put in operation since October 1963 and the first CANDU power reactor unit at Douglas Point （200MW）reached full power operation in 1968.7. The first nuclear reactor （HWRR）in China went critical on June 13, 1958 and started power operation on September 23, 1958.8. The first atomic bomb in China was successfully exploded on October 16 and the first hydrogen bomb in China on June 17, 1967.9. The first nuclear submarine in China commenced its sea trials on August 23, 1971.10. The 300 MWe QNPC, designed and constructed by China, was connected to the gird of electricity generation on December, 15, 1991.11. The Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station was connected to the gird on August 31, 1993 and started commercial operation on February 1, 1994.12. In addition to QNPC and Daya Bay Nuclear Power Station, other nuclear power plants are being constructed in China.UNIT 2 DEMAND FOR ELECTRC POWER1. During the present century, the world's consumption of energy has grown rapidly due to the per capita increase in the use of energy for industry, agriculture and transportation.2. It is of special interest, the larger and larger proportions of the energy used are in the form of electric power.3. The generation of electricity requires primary energy sources and the increasing demand for electric power can be satisfied only if such primary sources are rapidly available.4. The main energy sources for the generation of electricity have been the fossil fuels, i.e., coal, natural gas, oil and hydroelectric （water）power.5. The adverse environmental effects of strip mining and the burning of coal, as well as increas ing costs, are making coal less attractive for the generation of electricity.6. Although new reserves of oil and natural gas are being discovered, it appears that the worldwide production of these fuels will start to decrease around the turn of the century.7. Coal and petroleum provide the essential raw materials for the production of chemicals, including medicinal products, dyes, fibers, rubber and plastics.8. In the long run, the fossil fuels may prove to be more valuable in the respect of chemicals production than as primary sources of energy.9. The idea of making use of the sun's energy is very attractive, but considerable research and development will be required before electricity can be generated from solar energy on a commercial scale.10. Nuclear energy can be made available either by the fission of heavy atomic nuclei or the fusion of very light ones.11. The fusion process has been demonstrated, both in experiments and in the hydrogen bomb; but is doubtful-that fusion energy can make any significant contribution to the power requirements before the end of the century.12. Nuclear fission has been established as a primary source of energy at costs that are competitive with electricity from other sourcesUNIT 3 RADIOACITIVITY1. An atom consists of a positively charged nucleus surrounded by negatively charged electrons, so that the atom as a whole is electrically neutral.2. Atomic nuclei are composed of two kinds of fundamental particles, namely, protons and neutrons.3. The proton carries a single unit positive charge equal in magnitude to the electronic charge.4. The neutron is very slightly heavier than the proton and is an electrically neutral particle.5. For a given element, the number of protons present in the atomic nucleus is called the atomic number of the element and the total number of nucleons, i.e., of protons and neutrons is called the mass number.6. The term nuclide is commonly used describe an atomic species whose nuclei have a specified composition, that is to say, a nuclide in nature is a species having given atomic and mass numbers.7. Such nuclides, having the same atomic number but different mass number, are called isotope, e.g., three forms of uranium isotopes in nature with the atomic number 92 but mass number 234, 235 and 238, respectively.8. The unstable substances undergo spontaneous change, i.e., radioactive decay, at definite rates.9. The radioactive decay is associated with the emission from the atomic nucleus of an electrically charged particle, either a alpha particles, i.e., helium nucleus, or a beta particles, i.e., an electron.10. In many instances of gamma rays, which are penetrating electromagnetic radiation of high energy, accompany the particle emission.11. The most widely used method for representing the rate of radioactive decay is by means of the half 每life, which is defined as the time required for the number of radioactive nuclei to decay to half its initial value.12. Since the number of nuclei （or their activity）decays to half its initial value in a half-life period, the number （or activity）will fall to one-fourth by the end of two half-life periods, and to less than 1 percent of its initial value after seven half-life periods.UNIT 4 NUCLEAR FISSION1. The neutron-nuclei reactors fall into three general categories, namely, scattering, capture and fission.2. After absorption of a neutron, a nucleus breaks into two lighter nuclei, called fission fragments, with the liberation of a considerab le amount of energy and two or three neutrons; this phenomenon is called nuclear fission.3. It should be noted that it is only with the fission nuclides that aself-sustaining fission chain is possible.4. Uranium-233, Uranium-235, Uranium-239, which will undergo fission with neutron of any energy, are referred to as fission nuclides.5. Since fission of thorium-232 and uranium-238 is possible with sufficient fast neutron, they are knows as fissionable nuclides; moreover, s incethorium-232 and uranium-238 can be converted into the fissile nuclides, uranium-233 and plutonium-239, respectively, they are also called fissile nuclides.6. The fission of a single uranium-235 （or similar）is accompanied by the release of over 200MeV of energy, with may be compared about 4eV released by the combustion of an atom of carbon-12.7. The neutrons can strike other uranium atoms and cause additional fission and the continuing process of fissioning is known as a chain reactor.8. Since two or three neutrons are liberated in each of fission whereas only one is required to maintain a fission chain, it would seem that once the fission reaction were initiated in a given mass of fissile material, it would readily sustain itself.9. However, such is not the case because not all the neutrons produced in fission are available to carry on the fission chain, that is, some neutrons are lost in nonfission reactions （mainly radioactive capture）,whereas other neutrons escape from the system undergoing fission.10. The minimum quantity of such material that is capable of sustaining a fission chain is called the critical mass.UNIT 5 GENERAL FEATURES OF NECLEAR REACTORS1. A device in which nuclear fission energy is released in a controlled manner is called nuclear reactor.2. In outline, a reactor consists of an active core in which the fission chain is sustained and in which most of the energy of fission is released as heat.3. The core contains the nuclear fuel, consisting of a fissile nuclide and usually a fertile material in addition.4. The function of the moderator is to slow down the high-energy neutrons liberated in the fission reactor.5. The purpose of reflector is to decrease the loss of neutrons from the core by scattering back many of those which have escaped.6. The heat generated in the reactor is removed by circulation of a suitable coolant, such as ordinary（light）water, heavy water, liquid sodium（or sodium-potassium alloy）, air and helium etc.7. The higher the temperature of the steam, the greater the efficiency for conversion into useful power.8. If the energy released in the reactor is to be converted into electric power, the heat must be transferred from the coolant to a working fluid to produce steam.9. Reactor control, including startup, power operation and shutdown is generally by moving control rods.10. In most commercial thermal reactors the fuel is either uranium （0.7% uranium-235）, with heavy water or graphite as the moderator, or uranium containing 2-4 percent of the fissile isotope, with ordinary water as the moderator.11. Based on the purpose, the reactor can fall into experimental （or research）reactor, production reactor, power reactor, dual purpose （power and production）reactor or nuclear heating reactor.12. According to the type of coolant and moderator, reactor can be called pressurized water reactor, boiling water reactor, heavy water reactor （e.g. CANDU）, graphite reactor, or liquid metal cooled reactor.UNIT 6 REACTOR CONTROL1. In the normal operation of a reactor, the functions of the control system may be divided into three phases, i.e. startup, power operation and shutdown.2. If the potentially unsafe conditions should arise, a protection system would automatically shut down the reactor.3. An essential requirement of the control system is that it must be capable of introducing enough negative reactivity to compensate for the build-in （excess）reactivity at initial startup of the reactor.4. Four general methods are possible for changing the neutron flux in a reactor, they involve temporary addition or removal of （1）fuel, （2）moderator, （3）reflector, （4） a neutron absorber.5. The control material commonly used in pressurized water reactor is alloy of 80（weight）percent silver, 15 percent indium and 5percent cadmium.6. The procedure most commonly employed, especially in power reactor, is the insertion or withdrawal of a material, such as boron or cadmium, having a large cross section for the absorption of neutrons.7. When a reactor core is being assembled, the neutron absorbing control robs are fully inserted, so the reactor is sub critical.8. During startup, the control rods are withdraw slowly, thereby permittinga gradual increase in the reactivity until the reactor becomes critical and then slightly supercritical.9. The neutron flux is thus allowed to increase at a safe, controlled rate until its magnitude corresponds to the desired operating power level of the reactor.10. The rods are then inserted to the extent required to keep the system exactly critical, so that the neutron flux and power level remain steady.11. To shut the reactor son, the control rods would be reinserted in to the core, there by decreasing the reactivity neutron flux and the power output.A control system consists of three control poops, i.e., “operator （manual）loop”, “automatic loop” and “load loop”.UNIT 7 INSTRUMENTATION1. In addition to conventional instrumentation, such as that required fir measuring temperatures, pressures, coolant flow rates, etc., devices （sensors）for determining the neutron flux play an important role in reactor control and safety.2. Many instruments for the detection of nuclear radiation are dependent upon the behavior in an electrical field of the ion-pairs formed by the ionizing particles in their passage through a gas.3. Neutrons are unchanged particles and therefore cannot cause ionization directly, so they must interact with matter by means of a nuclear reactor which, in turn, will generate charged particles.4. The changed particles will cause ionization within a gas-filled detector and these ion pairs will produce a voltage pulse or some mean level current when collected at the electrodes of the detector.5. Since the neutron flux covers a wide range （12 decades）, no single instrument can provide a satisfactory indication of the neutron flux and hencethree ranges, i.e., source range, intermediate range and power range, of instrumentation are used to obtain accurate flux level measures.6. BF3 gas generated filled detectors （proportional counter）are used in source range, compensated ion chamber are in the intermediate range, and uncompensated ion chamber in the power range in some nuclear power plant.7. Since gamma radiation from fission and fission products in a reactor can be very intense, the compensated ionization chambers are required in the intermediate range.8. The fission chamber is coated with a uranium compound and pulse produced by the fission fragments resulting from the interaction of neutrons with the uranium-235 are so large that there is no difficulty in discriminating even against “pile-up” pluses from gamma rays.9. Pressure, defined as force per unit area, is one of the measured and controlled properties.10. Typically application of Borden tube pressure sensors is locally mounted pump suction and discharge pressure gages.11. Thermocouples are utilized as temperature sensors t core exits.The hot and gold leg temperature detectors of Reactors Coolant System are Resistance Temperature Detectors （RTDs）.UNIT 8 ENERGY REMOVAL1. In practical, the maximum power level of a reactor is normally determined by the rate at which the energy （heat）can be removed.2. In nuclear reactor operating at high neutron flux, such as those intended for central station power or ship propulsion, the design of the core depends just as much on the heat removal aspects as on nuclear consideration.3. The term thermal-hydraulic design is commonly used to describe the effort involving the integration of heat transfer and fluid mechanics principles to accomplish the desired rate of heat removal from the reactor fuel.4. The temperature in a reactor could increase continuously until the reactor is destroyed if the rate of heat removal were less than the rate of heat generation.5. The rate of heat generation and heat removal must be proper balanced ina operating reactor.6. The maximum of permissible temperature must be definitely established to make sure that the cooling system is adequate under anticipated operating conditions.7. The temperature at any point in a reactor will be greater than that of the sink by amount equal to the sum of all the temperature drops along theheat-flow path.8. The goal of reactor thermal-hydraulic des ign is to provide for the “optimum” transport of heat from the fuel to its conversion into useful energy, normally in a turbine.9. By “optimum” is meant a proper ba lance between many opposing parameters, such as coolant flow rate, temperature distribution in the core, materials, etc.10. An important aspect of the thermal-hydraulic design is concerned with conditions that might arise from an accident.11. Provision must be made in the design to accommodate deviations from normal operating conditions, such as following partial or complete loss in the coolant flow.Three general mechanisms are distinguished whereby heat is transferred from one point to another, namely, conduction, convection and radiation. UNIT 9 REACTOR MATERIALS1. A unique aspect of reactor environment is the presence of intense nuclear radiations of various types.2. Mechanical properties, such as tensile strength, ductility, impart strength and creep, must be adequate for the operation conditions.3. The material must be able of being fabricated or joined, e.g., by welding, into the required shape.4. An important requirement for structural and cladding materials is that they have a small adsorption cross section for neutrons.5. The alloys in common use as cladding material are zircaloy-2 and zircaloy-4, both of which have good mechanical properties and corrosion resistance.6. Ordinary water is attractive as a moderator because of its low cost, its excellent slowing-down power.7. Water of high degree of purity, especially free from chloride ions, is necessary to minimize corrosion.8. The fuel material should be resistant to radiation damage that can lead to dimensional changes, e.g., by swelling, cracking, or creep.9. The fuel material should have a high melting point and there should be no phase transformations, which would be accompanied by density and other changes, below the melting point.10. Uranium dioxide, ceramic which is the most common fuel material in commercial power reactors, has the advantage of high-temperature stability and adequate resistance to radiation.11. The pellets are ground to specified dimensions and are loaded into thin zircaloy tubes which serve as cladding.12. The small annular gap between the fuel pellets and cladding contains helium gas to improve the heat transfer characteristic.UNIT 10 REACTOR SAFETY1. In general, the goals of reactor safety are to reduce the probability of an accident and to limit the extent of the radiological hazard.2. Nuclear reactor systems are designed with a number of barriers to the release of radioactivity, namely, fuel pellets, fuel-rod cladding, primary coolant boundary and containment.3. The basic philosophy of the design of nuclear power plants has been described as defense in depth, expressed in terms of five levels of safety.4. The first level of safety is to design of reactor and other components of the system so that they will operate with a high degree of reliability and the chances of a malfunction are very small.5. The purpose of safety is to design the reactor and other components of the system so that they will operate with a high degree of reliability and the chances of a malfunction are very small.6. The third level of safety is to provide engineered safety features, such as emergency core cooling system, containment spray system, and emergency eclectic power.7. Plants are now being required to develop accident management programs, which should reduce the likelihood of uncontrolled radioactivity releases during accident.8. Finally, emergency planes are developed that include provisions for sheltering and evacuation to further reduce potential doses to the public.9. Suitable redundancy shall be provided to assure that the safety system function can be accomplished assuming a single failure.10. One way to minimize common-mode failure is by diversity, that is by the use of two or more independent and different methods for achieving the same result, e.g., reactor shutdown in an emergency.11. The evaluation of the safety of a nuclear power plant should include analyses of the response of the plant to postulated disturbance in process variables and to postulated malfunctions of equipment.12. An electric utility desiring to operate a nuclear power must first apply to the NNNA for a construction permit and then for an operating license.UNIT 11 QYALITY ASSURANCES1. Quality Assurance （QA）is referred to as planned and systematic actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that an item or facility will perform satisfactorily in service.2. Quality Control （QC）includes such as actions that provide a means to control and measure the characteristics of an item, process or facility in accordance with established requirements.3. Reliability is the probability that a device, system or facility will perform its intended function satisfactorily for a specified time under stated operating conditions.4. An overall quality assurance program shall be established to provide for control of the constitute activities associated with a nuclear power plant, such as design, construction, manufacturing, commissioning and operation.5. All programs shall provide that the activities affecting quality are accomplished in accordance with written procedures, instructions or drawings.6. Activity affecting quality includes designing, purchasing, fabricating, manufacturing, handling, shipping, storing, cleaning, erecting, installing, testing, commissioning, operating, inspecting, maintaining, repairing, refueling, modifying and decommissioning.7. A documented organization structure, with clearly defined functional responsibilities, level of authority and lines of internal and external communication for management, direction and execution of the quality assurance program shall be established.8. The preparation, review, approval and issue of documents essential to the performance and verification of the work shall be subject to control.9. Design control measures shall be applied to items such as the following: radiation protection; physics and stress analysis, thermal, hydraulic, seismic and accident analysis; compatibility of materials; accessibility of in-serviceinspection, maintenance and repair and delineation of acceptance criteria for inspection and tests.10. Hold-points beyond which work shall not proceed without the approval of a designated organization, if such inspection or witnessing of the inspection is required, shall be indicated in appropriate documents.11. Measures shall be established to control items which do not conform to requirements, in order to prevent their inadvertent use or installation.12. Quality assurance records shall represent objective evidence of quality and should include the results of review, inspections, tests, audits, monitoring of work performance, material analysis and power plant operation logs, as well as closely related data, such as qualification of personnel, procedures and equi UNIT 12 INTRODUCTION TO PWR NPP1. A pressurized water reactor （PWR）generating system is a dual cycle plant consisting of a closed, pressurized, reactor coolant system （primary）anda separate power conversion system （secondary）for the generation electricity.2. The use of a dual cycle design minimizes the quantities of fission products released to the power conversion system components and subsequent release of fission products to the atmosphere.3. The primary system consists of a pressure vessel containing the nuclear fuel and reactor coolant loops connected in parallel to the reactor vessel.4. Each reactor coolant loop contains a reactor coolant pump, a steam generator, loop piping and instrumentation.5. The reactor coolant system also contains a pressurizer connected to one of the loops for system pressure control.6. During operation, the reactor coolant system transfers the heat produced in the reactor to the steam generator where steam is produced to supply the turbine generator to produce electricity.7. The entire reactor coolant system is located in containment （reactor building）which isolates the radioactive reactor coolant system from the environment in the event of a leak.8. The turbine building contains all the power conversion system, including turbines, moisture-separator/reheaters, feedwater heaters, condenser etc.9. The control building contains the central control room with its console and control panels, as well as the relay room.10. A fuel storage area is provided for handling and storage of new and spent fuel.11. Auxiliary building contains safety related and potentially radioactive auxiliary system, such as residual heat removal system, the safety injection system, the component cooling system etc.12. The safety injection system is an emergency system that provides for the injection of borated water from the refueling water storage tank into reactor coolant sytem in the event of LOCA.UNIT 13 REACTOR VESSSEL AND INTERNALS1. The reactor vessel and internals support and align the reactor core and its associated components.2. Additionally, the vessel and internals provide a flowpath to ensure adequate heat removal capability from the fuel assemblies.3. The reactor vessel is a cylindrical, with a welded hemispherical bottom heat and a removable, flanged and gasketed, hemispherical upper head.4. The head flange is sealed to the vessel flange by two metallic “o” rings which fit into grooves machined in both flanges.5. The reactor vessel and heat are constructed of a manganese molybdenum alloy steel with all surfaces in contact with the reactor coolant clad with weld deposited stainless steel for corrosion resistance.6. Sample of reactor vessel and weld materials are provided to evaluate the effect of radiation on the fracture toughness of the reactor vessel.7. Reactor vessel closure head penetrations include: control rod drive mechanism adapters and reactor vessel head vent.8. The bottom head of the vessel contains penetrations for connection and entry of the in-core nuclear instrumentation.9. The reactor internals consist of the lower support structure, the upper support structure and the in-core instrumentation support structure.10. Lower core support structure consists of the core barrel, the core buffer, the lower core plate and support columns, the thermal shield, the intermediate diffuser plate and the core support.11. A thermal shield attached to the core barrel is provided to reduce radiation damage to the reactor vessel during operation.The upper core support structure consists of the upper support assembly and the upper core plate, between which are contained support columns and control rod guide tubes.UNIT 14 REACTOR CORE1. The reactor components consist of the fuel assemblies and all components which can be inserted into a fuel assembly to reactor power, power distribution or flow distribution.2. Fuel assemblies are square arrays （17×17 or 15×15）of long thin zircaloy tubes containing slightly enriched UO2 in the form pellets.3. Fuel assemblies are aligned by pins in the upper and lower core plates which mate with holes in the top and bottom nozzles.4. All control rod guide thimbles are filled with control rods, burnable poison assemblies, source assemblies or thimble plugging assemblies.5. A rod cluster control assembly consists of a group of individual neutron absorber rods fastened at top end to a common spider assembly.6. The absorber material used in the control rods is usuallysilver-indium-cadmium alloy sealed in stainless steel tubes.7. Control rods are designed to respond to fast reactivity changes while show changes such as fuel burnup are compensated by boron concentration changes.8. The burnable poison assemblies are designed to provide a fixed discrete poison during the initial core load.9. To insure adequate indication for the operator during long-term reactor shutdown and during reactor startup, neutron source assemblies are installed in the core.10. In order to limit core bypass though the control rod guide thimbles in fuel assemblies not containing control rods, sources assemblies, or burnable poison rods, the fuel assemblies at these locations are fitted with thimble plugging assemblies.11. Control rod drive mechanisms are magnetic jack assemblies which move control rods in discrete steps and tripping is accomplished byde-energizing the mechanisms and allowing the control rods to fall by gravity into the core.12. Reactor coolant enters the reactor vessel through the inlet nozzles, flows downward between the vessel wall and core barrel, then reverses direction and flows up through the core to remove the heat generated in the fuel assemblies, enters the upper plenum, and exits through the outlet nozzle.UNIT 15 PRESSURIZER1. A single reactor has only one pressurizer regardless of the number of loops.2. The pressurizer is a vertical, cylindrical, cylindrical vessel with hemispherical top and bottom heads.3. At nominal full power conditions, approximately sixty percent of the pressurizer volume is saturated water with the remaining saturated steam.4. Electrical heaters are installed through the bottom head while the spray nozzle, relief valve and safety valve connections are located in the top head of the vessel.。

The Economist August 29th 2020 Business 55Depending on whom you ask, Califor-nia is a leader in clean energy or a cau-tionary tale. Power outages in August prompted stern critiques from Republi-cans. “In California”, D onald Trump tweeted, “D emocrats have intentionally implemented rolling blackouts—forcing Americans in the dark.” In addition to pro-voking outrage and derision, however, the episode is also likely to inspire investment.The Golden State has long been Ameri-ca’s main testing ground for green compa-nies. Californians buy half of all electric cars sold in America. Theirs is the country’s largest solar market. As California deals with heat waves, fires and a goal of carbon-free electricity by 2045, the need for a reli-able grid is becoming ever more obvious.For years firms competed to generate clean power in California. Now a growing num-ber are vying to store and manage it, too. August’s blackouts have many causes,including poor planning, an unexpected lack of capacity and sweltering heat in not just California but nearby states from which it sometimes imports power. Long before the outages, however, electricity op-erators were anxious about capacity. Cali-fornia’s solar panels become less useful in the evening, when demand peaks. In No-vember state regulators mandated that utilities procure an additional 3.3 gigawatts (gw ) of capacity, including giant batteries that charge when energy is abundant and can sell electricity back to the grid.Too few such projects have come online to cope with the surge in demand for air-conditioning in the scorching summer. But more are sprouting across the state. On Au-gust 19th ls Power, an electricity firm backed by private equity, unveiled a 250-megawatt (mw ) storage project in San Die-go, the largest of its kind in America. In July the county of Monterey said Vistra Energy,a Texan power company, could build as much as 1.2gw of storage.The rooftop solar industry stands to benefit from a new Californian mandate that requires new homes to install panels on their roofs from this year. Sunrun, the market leader, is increasingly pairing such residential installations with batteries. In July, for instance, the company said it had won contracts with energy suppliers in the Bay Area to install 13mw of residential solar and batteries. These could supply power to residents in a blackout or feed power into the grid to help meet peak demand. Sunrunis so confident in its future that it has bid $3.2bn for Vivint Solar,its main rival.Another way to stave offoutages is to curb demand.Enel,a European power company,has contracts with local utilities to work with large commercial and indus-trial clients.When demand rises,Enel pays customers to reduce energy consumption,easing demand on the grid.A company called OhmConnect offers something sim-ilar for homeowners.Even as such offerings scale up,the need for reliability means that fossil fuels will not disappear just yet.On September 1st California’s regulators will vote on whether to delay the retirement of four natural-gas plants in light of the outages.The state remains intent on decarbonising its power system over the next 25years.But progress may not move in a straight line.7NEW YO RKBusinesses compete to battle California’s blackoutsEnergy utilitiesLitMany big companies may be struggling with depressed sales, but these are busy times for bribery-busters. Mexico is abuzz over allegations by an ex-boss of Pe-mex, the state oil giant, that several senior politicians received bungs from compa-nies including Odebrecht, a Brazilian con-struction firm (see Americas section). The scandal is the latest in a string of graft cases to make headlines this year, starting with Airbus’s record $4bn settlement in January over accusations of corruption for making illegal payments in various countries.Corporate bribery is hardly new. In sur-veys, between a third and a half of compa-nies typically claim to have lost business to rivals who won contracts by paying kick-backs. But such perceptions-based re-search has obvious limitations. A new study takes a more rigorous approach, and draws some striking conclusions.Raghavendra Rau of Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge, Yan-Leung Cheung of the Education University of Hong Kong and Aris Stouraitis of Hong Kong Baptist University examined nearly 200 prominent bribery cases in 60 coun-tries between 1975 and 2015. For the firms doing the bribing, they found, the short-term gains were juicy: every dollar of bribe translated into a $6-9 increase in excess re-turns, relative to the overall stockmarket. That, however, does not take account of the chances of getting caught. These have risen as enforcement of America’s 43-year-old anti-bribery law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (fcpa ), has been stepped up and other countries have passed similar laws. The number of fcpa cases is up sharply since the financial crisis of 2007-09, according to Stanford Law School (see chart). It has dipped a bit under Presi-dent Donald Trump, who has criticised the fcpa for hobbling American firms over-seas, but remains well above historic lev-els. Total fines for fcpa violations were $14bn in 2016-19, 48 times as much as in the four years to 2007.The authors also tested 11hypotheses that emerged from past studies of bribery.They found support for some, for instance that firms pay larger bribes when they ex-pect to receive larger benefits, and that the net benefits of bribing are smaller in places with more public disclosure of politicians’sources of income.But they punctured other bits of re-ceived wisdom. Most striking, they found no link between democracy and graft. This challenges the “Tullock paradox”, which holds that firms can get away with smaller bribes in democracies because politicians and officials have less of a lock on the sys-tem than those in autocratic countries, and so cannot extract as much rent. Such find-ings will doubtless be of interest to corrup-tion investigators and unscrupulous exec-utives alike. 7Bribery pays—if you don’t get caughtBriberyA closer look at greasy palmsBrown envelopes, big chequesUnited States,Foreign Corrupt Practices ActSources:Stanford Law School;Sullivan &Cromwell*Investigations and enforcement actions †To August6543210605040302010020†10152000059095851977Enforcement actionsSanctions, $bnUtilitiesTransport Communications Basic materials Financial services Consumer goods Aerospace & defence TechnologyIndustrials Health care Oil &gas 100806040200Number of cases* by selected industry1977-2020†。

Nuclear Power: Blessing or Disaster to Humankind?Juanita Wang 2011-9-23Every coin has two sides, so does nuclear power. But after weighing its multiple advantages and disadvantages, I reached a conclusion that it was more like a blessing to humankind.Let me start with the major contribution of nuclear power. Since its discovery in the fifties, nuclear power has accounted for 17% of the world’s electricity supply in the second half of the century. The power has been a great addition in many areas around the world. But some may argue that it might also do some harm to our environment, but it should be noted that it is not the only source of energy that is damaging to the environment, and even is not the most serious one. What’s more, it has an abundant way of using and electricity is definitely not the only one.Opponents of nuclear power usually talk about the risk of accidents. Namely: the first major nuclear power plant accident in Pennsylvania in 1979; the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster in 1986; and recently the Fukushima nuclear leak in Japan. They are no wrong, because the risk of catastrophe can never be brought to be zero. However, statistics demonstrate that the safety record of nuclear power compares veryfavorably with the record of other means of energy generation in terms of death or injury caused to persons. And in addition to that, I really doubt that is nuclear power the only factor that should be responsible to all these accidents? If so, what about the inability of plant operators to recognize and respond to the reactor’s condition? What about the unqualified buildings of nuclear power plant? Well, another worry about nuclear power is the connection with military uses, for me, I believe that nuclear weapon can be controlled well due to all the efforts we make.And then let me end my speaking today with an expert’s remarking, that is: “Although the process of nuclear power from an idea to a commercial reality has witnessed many successes, it has also had its share of failures. Unfortunately, the failures make more news and therefore catch the attention of the public. The successful stories are seldom publicized.”So, generally speaking, I think nuclear power is a blessing to humankind.That’s it. Thank you all.。

Nuclear power:Blessing or Disaster to Humankind Chemical Engineering1001By Chris LeeDebates about its influences on humankind have been existed since nuclear power came into being.As far as I am concerned,nuclear power do more harm than good to humankind.I’llmake detailed analysesto testify my opinion.Talking about nuclear energy,First,does nuclear energy really eco-friendly?No,they doesn’t.It might doesn’t release any polluting gas during the generating process.Actually,the fact is quite the reverse.One of the material that used in nuclear power station is aranium.It will cost gigantic energy to run the set to concentrate aranium.While the energy are all come from the coal-based electric station.Isn’tit clear that this process will produce more waste?If so,how can we say it eco-friendly?Second,does nuclear energy really highly efficient?I’m extremely doubt about it.The authentic economic value of nuclear industry has never been carefully evaluated.Frankly speaking,including maintainance fee and subsequent management,what we paid has already 10 times more than what we gained.The last but not the least,does it safe?Let the history tell.In 1986,the Chernobyl nuclear accident bring endless torment to humankind.It was estimated that over3900000 sq.km land has been polluted irreversiblely.And over 9000000 people are threatened in that accident during the past 20 years.Even in current situation,highly developed technology still can’t low it’s threat.Japanese nightmare on 3.11 this year is a typical sample.As to nuclear weapons,what it has been bringing to humankind are violence and bloodshed.Nothing is perfect in the world.Greater power,comes greater danger and disaster.Generally speaking,there is nothing wrong with nuclear power,it’s the way we use it really matters.So,before we can totally handle this double-edged sword,let’s just keep it and create a more harmless world for us and our descendent.That’s all.Thank you for you listening!。

Nuclear power: the right solution to energy crisis? (Essayplan)Introduction·Problems &situation:Fossil fuels are precious natural energy resources which is hard to create and easy to deplete rapidly. Various evidences from one continent to another continent conveyed that we are facing a planetary urgent energy crisis which is related to the shortage of fossil fuels.·Nuclear power has been considered as one alternative supplies ·Purpose statement:In this essay, allegation of using nuclear power as alternative energy source which can supersede fossil fuel will be identified through distinct perspectives from proponent and opponent of nuclear power.Main body·Introduction of Nuclear Power:Theories existed to prove how nuclear power can generate electricity.History of development of nuclear power plants.Status quo of nuclear power plants.·Perspectives of opponent of nuclear power(why do we support nuclear power)a) Fear of radioactive release (Risk of having catastrophic, e.g.Three Mile Island; Chernoby1, etc.)b) Unattractive economicsc) Concerns about the risk of weapons proliferationd) Methods of processing radioactive wastes (reprocessing & directdisposal)·Perspectives of proponent of nuclear power(they insist that the benefits far exceeded risks)a) Do not emit greenhouse gases (alleviate global warming)b) Become safer. Well designed, well operated plants can avoid therisk of catastrophic. (Survey from Nuclear power personnel)c) Play an significant role in the transition period.ConclusionNuclear power plants can play a momentous role to alleviate global warming, meanwhile, it also accompanied with significant problemssuch as the processing of radioactive waste and the threaten of nuclear weapon.。

nuclear power雅思大作文Nuclear power has been a topic of considerable debate for decades. Proponents argue that it is a clean and efficient source of energy, while opponents raise concerns about safety and environmental impact. This essay explores both sides of the argument and presents a balanced view on the role of nuclear power in our energy future.On one hand, nuclear power offers several advantages. It is a low-carbon energy source, which means it does not emit greenhouse gases during operation, making it a vital tool in the fight against climate change. Nuclear reactors are also highly efficient, capable of generating vast amounts of electricity with a small amount of fuel. This efficiency can help reduce dependence on fossil fuels and decrease the overall carbon footprint of energy production.Moreover, nuclear power plants operate continuously and can provide a stable base load of electricity, which is essential for meeting the growing demand for energy. Unlike renewable sources such aswind and solar, which are intermittent, nuclear power is reliable and can ensure a consistent energy supply.On the other hand, there are significant drawbacks to nuclear power. The most pressing issue is the safety of nuclear reactors. Accidents such as Chernobyl and Fukushima have highlighted the catastrophic consequences of nuclear meltdowns. The risk of radioactive contamination and the long-term storage of nuclear waste are also major concerns. The environmental and health impacts of these issues cannot be underestimated.Additionally, the construction of nuclear power plants is costly and time-consuming. The financial burden, along with the potential for construction delays and cost overruns, can be prohibitive for many countries. Furthermore, the proliferation of nuclear technology raises concerns about nuclear weapons proliferation and the potential for nuclear materials to fall into the wrong hands.In conclusion, nuclear power has the potential to be a key player in the transition to a low-carbon energy economy. Its efficiency and ability to provide a stableenergy supply are significant benefits. However, the safety, environmental, and financial concerns cannot be ignored. It is essential that rigorous safety standards are maintained and that research into safer reactor designs and more effective waste management solutions continues. Only with careful consideration of these factors can nuclear power be a sustainable and responsible part of our energy mix.中文翻译：核能一直是数十年来争议不断的话题。

Unit 11.buildings are rarely designed to save energy,because those who putthem up do not usually pay the bills and those who occupy them choose them for their views or their looks , not their energy-efficiency.楼房设计很少考虑能效，因为建造者不用为之买单，而那些楼房的住户们买房时考虑的是景色或楼房的外观，而不是它们的能效。

2.that will happen only if governments require them to do so ,or taxdirty products and processes (through a carbon price),or subsidise clean ones .只有政府要求，或是（通过碳定价）对污染产品和工艺征税，或进行清洁生产补贴，公司才会投资清洁技术。

3.a $40carbon price now ,doubling by 2050, and combined withnon-price policies such as appliance standards and R&D support ,is needed to hit the 450ppm targets .碳价需要定在40美元，到2050年翻一番，结合电器标准和研发扶持等非价格政策，才能达到450ppm的目标。

panies can buy and sell allocations amongst themselves ,and canalso buy “certified emission reductions “from developing countries to meet their caps through Kyoto’s “clean development mechanism”.公司间可以买卖分配额，也可以按照京都“清洁发展机制”从发展中国家购买“和政的减排量”，以符合减排限制。

Three days from now, after half century in the service of our country, I shall lay down the responsibilities of office as, in traditional and solemn ceremony, the authority of the Presidency is vested in my successor. This evening, I come to you with a message of leave-taking and farewell, and to share a few final thoughts with you, my countrymen.Like every other -- Like every other citizen, I wish the new President, and all who will labor with him, Godspeed. I pray that the coming years will be blessed with peace and prosperity for all.Our people expect their President and the Congress to find essential agreement on issues of great moment, the wise resolution of which will better shape the future of the nation. My own relations with the Congress, which began on a remote and tenuous basis when, long ago, a member of the Senate appointed me to West Point, have since ranged to the intimate during the war and immediate post-war period, and finally to the mutually interdependent during these past eight years. In this final relationship, the Congress and the Administration have, on most vital issues, cooperated well, to serve the nation good, rather than mere partisanship, and so have assured that the business of the nation should go forward. So, my official relationship with the Congress ends in a feeling -- on my part -- of gratitude that we have been able to do so much together.We now stand ten years past the midpoint of a century that has witnessed four major wars among great nations. Three of these involved our own country. Despite these holocausts, America is today the strongest, the most influential, and most productive nation in the world. Understandably proud of this pre-eminence, we yet realize that America's leadership and prestige depend, not merely upon our unmatched material progress, riches, and military strength, but on how we use our power in the interests of world peace and human betterment.Throughout America's adventure in free government, our basic purposes have been to keep the peace, to foster progress in human achievement, and to enhance liberty, dignity, and integrity among peoples and among nations. To strive for less would be unworthy of a free and religious people. Any failure traceable to arrogance, or our lack of comprehension, or readiness to sacrifice would inflict upon us grievous hurt, both at home and abroad.Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insiduous [insidious] in method. Unhappily, the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carryforward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment.Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defenses; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel.But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs, balance between the private and the public economy, balance between the cost and hoped for advantages, balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable, balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual, balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress. Lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration. The record of many decades stands as proof that our people and their Government have, in the main, understood these truths and have responded to them well, in the face of threat and stress.But threats, new in kind or degree, constantly arise. Of these, I mention two only.A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment. Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction. Our military organization today bears little relation to that known of any of my predecessors in peacetime, or, indeed, by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security alone more than the net income of all United States cooperations -- corporations.Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every Statehouse, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet, we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources, and livelihood are all involved. So is the very structure of our society.In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by themilitary-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades. In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been overshadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers. The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present -- and is gravely to be regarded.Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.It is the task of statesmanship to mold, to balance, and to integrate these and other forces, new and old, within the principles of our democratic system -- ever aiming toward the supreme goals of our free society.Another factor in maintaining balance involves the element of time. As we peer into society's future, we -- you and I, and our government -- must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for our own ease and convenience the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.During the long lane of the history yet to be written, America knows that this world of ours, ever growing smaller, must avoid becoming a community of dreadful fear and hate, and be, instead, a proud confederation of mutual trust and respect. Such a confederation must be one of equals. The weakest must come to the conference table with the same confidence as do we, protected as we are by our moral, economic, and military strength. That table, though scarred by many fast frustrations -- past frustrations, cannot be abandoned for the certain agony of disarmament -- of the battlefield.Disarmament, with mutual honor and confidence, is a continuing imperative. Together we must learn how to compose differences, not with arms, but with intellect and decent purpose. Because this need is so sharp and apparent,I confess that I lay down my official responsibilities in this field witha definite sense of disappointment. As one who has witnessed the horror and the lingering sadness of war, as one who knows that another war could utterly destroy this civilization which has been so slowly and painfully built over thousands of years, I wish I could say tonight that a lasting peace is in sight.Happily, I can say that war has been avoided. Steady progress toward our ultimate goal has been made. But so much remains to be done. As a private citizen, I shall never cease to do what little I can to help the world advance along that road.So, in this, my last good night to you as your President, I thank you for the many opportunities you have given me for public service in war and in peace. I trust in that -- in that -- in that service you find some things worthy. As for the rest of it, I know you will find ways to improve performance in the future.You and I, my fellow citizens, need to be strong in our faith that all nations, under God, will reach the goal of peace with justice. May we be ever unswerving in devotion to principle, confident but humble with power, diligent in pursuit of the Nations' great goals.To all the peoples of the world, I once more give expression to America's prayerful and continuing aspiration: We pray that peoples of all faiths, all races, all nations, may have their great human needs satisfied; that those now denied opportunity shall come to enjoy it to the full; that all who yearn for freedom may experience its few spiritual blessings. Those who have freedom will understand, also, its heavy responsibility; that all who are insensitive to the needs of others will learn charity; and that the sources -- scourges of poverty, disease, and ignorance will be made [to] disappear from the earth; and that in the goodness of time, all peoples will come to live together in a peace guaranteed by the binding force of mutual respect and love.Now, on Friday noon, I am to become a private citizen. I am proud to do so. I look forward to it.Thank you, and good night.。

Digest Of The. Economist. 2006(6-7)Hard to digestA wealth of genetic information is to be found in the human gutBACTERIA, like people, can be divided into friend and foe. Inspired by evidence that the friendly sort may help with a range of ailments, many people consume bacteria in the form of yogurts and dietary supplements. Such a smattering of artificial additions, however, represents but a drop in the ocean. There are at least 800 types of bacteria living in the human gut. And research by Steven Gill of the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Maryland, and his colleagues, published in this week's Science, suggests that the collective genome of these organisms is so large that it contains 100 times as many genes as the human genome itself.Dr Gill and his team were able to come to this conclusion by extracting bacterial DNA from the faeces of two volunteers. Because of the complexity of the samples, they were not able to reconstruct the entire genomes of each of the gut bacteria, just the individual genes. But that allowed them to make an estimate of numbers.What all these bacteria are doing is tricky to identify—the bacteria themselves are difficult to cultivate. So the researchers guessed at what they might be up to by comparing the genes theydiscovered with published databases of genes whose functions are already known.This comparison helped Dr Gill identify for the first time the probable enzymatic processes by which bacteria help humans to digest the complex carbohydrates in plants. The bacteria also contain a plentiful supply of genes involved in the synthesis of chemicals essential to human life—including two B vitamins and certain essential amino acids—although the team merely showed that these metabolic pathways exist rather than proving that they are used. Nevertheless, the pathways they found leave humans looking more like ruminants: animals such as goats and sheep that use bacteria to break down otherwise indigestible matter in the plants they eat.The broader conclusion Dr Gill draws is that people are superorganisms whose metabolism represents an amalgamation of human and microbial attributes. The notion of a superorganism has emerged before, as researchers in other fields have come to view humans as having a diverse internal ecosystem. This, suggest some, will be crucial to the success of personalised medicine, as different people will have different responses to drugs, depending on their microbial flora. Accordingly, the next step, says Dr Gill, is to see how microbial populations vary between people of different ages, backgrounds and diets.Another area of research is the process by which these helpful bacteria first colonise the digestive tract. Babies acquire their gut flora as they pass down the birth canal and take a gene-filled gulp of their mother's vaginal and faecal flora. It might not be the most delicious of first meals, but it could well be an important one. Zapping the bluesThe rebirth of electric-shock treatmentELECTRICITY has long been used to treat medical disorders. As early as the second century AD, Galen, a Greek physician, recommended the use of electric eels for treating headaches and facial pain. In the 1930s Ugo Cerletti and Lucio Bini, two Italian psychiatrists, used electroconvulsive therapy to treat schizophrenia. These days, such rigorous techniques are practised less widely. But researchers are still investigating how a gentler electric therapy appears to treat depression.Vagus-nerve stimulation, to give it its proper name, was originally developed to treat severe epilepsy. It requires a pacemaker-like device to be implanted in a patient's chest and wires from it threaded up to the vagus nerve on the left side of his neck. In the normal course of events, this provides an electrical pulse to the vagus nerve for 30 seconds every five minutes.This treatment does not always work, but in some cases whereit failed (the number of epileptic seizures experienced by a patient remaining the same), that patient nevertheless reported feeling much better after receiving the implant. This secondary effect led to trials for treating depression and, in 2005, America's Food and Drug Administration approved the therapy for depression that fails to respond to all conventional treatments, including drugs and psychotherapy.Not only does the treatment work, but its effects appear to be long lasting. A study led by Charles Conway of Saint Louis University in Missouri, and presented to a recent meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, has found that 70% of patients who are better after one year stay better after two years as well.The technique builds on a procedure called deep-brain stimulation, in which electrodes are implanted deep into the white matter of patients' brains and used to “reboot” faulty neural circuitry. Such an operation is a big undertaking, requiring a full day of surgery and carrying a risk of the patient suffering a stroke. Only a small number of people have been treated this way. In contrast, the device that stimulates the vagus nerve can be implanted in 45 minutes without a stay in hospital.The trouble is that vagus-nerve stimulation can take a long time to produce its full beneficial effect. According to Dr Conway, scanstaken using a technique called positron-emission tomography show significant changes in brain activity starting three months after treatment begins. The changes are similar to the improvements seen in patients who undergo other forms of antidepression treatment. The brain continues to change over the following 21 months. Dr Conway says that patients should be told that the antidepressant effects could be slow in coming.However, Richard Selway of King's College Hospital, London, found that his patients' moods improved just weeks after the implant. Although brain scans are useful in determining the longevity of the treatment, Mr Selway notes that visible changes in the brain do not necessarily correlate perfectly with changes in mood.Nobody knows why stimulating the vagus nerve improves the mood of depressed patients, but Mr Selway has a theory. He believes that the electrical stimulation causes a region in the brain stem called the locus caeruleus (Latin, ironically, for “blue place”) to flood the brain with norepinephrine, a neurotransmitter implicated in alertness, concentration and motivation—that is, the mood states missing in depressed patients. Whatever the mechanism, for the depressed a therapy that is relatively safe and long lasting is rare cause for cheer. The shape of things to comeHow tomorrow's nuclear power stations will differ from today'sTHE agency in charge of promoting nuclear power in America describes a new generation of reactors that will be “highly economical” with “enhanced safety”, that “minimise wastes” andwill prove “proliferation resistant”. No doubt they will bake a mean apple pie, too.Unfortunately, in the world of nuclear energy, fine words are not enough. America got away lightly with its nuclear accident. When the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania overheated in 1979 very little radiation leaked, and there were no injuries. Europe was not so lucky. The accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986 killed dozens immediately and has affected (sometimes fatally) the health of tens of thousands at the least. Even discounting the association of nuclear power with nuclear weaponry, people have good reason to be suspicious of claims that reactors are safe.Yet political interest in nuclear power is reviving across the world, thanks in part to concerns about global warming and energy security. Already, some 441 commercial reactors operate in 31 countries and provide 17% of the planet's electricity, according to America's Department of Energy. Until recently, the talk was of how to retire these reactors gracefully. Now it is of how to extend their lives. In addition, another 32 reactors are being built, mostly in India, China and their neighbours. These new power stations belong towhat has been called the third generation of reactors, designs that have been informed by experience and that are considered by their creators to be advanced. But will these new stations really be safer than their predecessors?Clearly, modern designs need to be less accident prone. The most important feature of a safe design is that it “fails safe”. Fo r a reactor, this means that if its control systems stop working it shuts down automatically, safely dissipates the heat produced by the reactions in its core, and stops both the fuel and the radioactive waste produced by nuclear reactions from escaping by keeping them within some sort of containment vessel. Reactors that follow such rules are called “passive”. Most modern designs are passive to some extent and some newer ones are truly so. However, some of the genuinely passive reactors are also likely to be more expensive to run.Nuclear energy is produced by atomic fission. A large atom (usually uranium or plutonium) breaks into two smaller ones, releasing energy and neutrons. The neutrons then trigger further break-ups. And so on. If this “chain reaction” can be controlled, the energy released can be used to boil water, produce steam and drive a turbine that generates electricity. If it runs away, the result is a meltdown and an accident (or, in extreme circumstances, a nuclearexplosion—though circumstances are never that extreme in a reactor because the fuel is less fissile than the material in a bomb). In many new designs the neutrons, and thus the chain reaction, are kept under control by passing them through water to slow them down. (Slow neutrons trigger more break ups than fast ones.) This water is exposed to a pressure of about 150 atmospheres—a pressure that means it remains liquid even at high temperatures. When nuclear reactions warm the water, its density drops, and the neutrons passing through it are no longer slowed enough to trigger further reactions. That negative feedback stabilises the reaction rate.Can business be cool?Why a growing number of firms are taking global warming seriously RUPERT MURDOCH is no green activist. But in Pebble Beach later this summer, the annual gathering of executivesof Mr Murdoch's News Corporation—which last year led to a dramatic shift in the media conglomerate's attitude tothe internet—will be addressed by several leading environmentalists, including a vice-president turned climatechangemovie star. Last month BSkyB, a British satellite-television company chaired by Mr Murdoch and run by hisson, James, declared itself “carbon-neutral”, having taken various steps to cut or offset its discharges of carboninto the atmosphere.The army of corporate greens is growing fast. Late last year HSBC became the first big bank to announce that itwas carbon-neutral, joining other financial institutions, including Swiss Re, a reinsurer, and Goldman Sachs, aninvestment bank, in waging war on climate-warming gases (of which carbon dioxide is the main culprit). Last yearGeneral Electric (GE), an industrial powerhouse, launched its “Ecomagination” strategy, aiming to cut its output ofgreenhouse gases and to invest heavily in clean (ie, carbon-free) technologies. In October Wal-Mart announced aseries of environmental schemes, including doubling the fuel-efficiency of its fleet of vehicles within a decade.Tesco and Sainsbury, two of Britain's biggest retailers, are competing fiercely to be the greenest. And on June 7thsome leading British bosses lobbied Tony Blair for a more ambitious policy on climate change, even if that involvesharsher regulation.The greening of business is by no means universal, however. Money from Exxon Mobil, Ford and General Motorshelped pay for television advertisements aired recently in America by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, with thedaft slogan “Carbon dioxide: they call it pollution; we call it life”. Besides, environmentalist critics say, some firmsare engaged in superficial “greenwash” to boost the image of essentially climate-hurting businesses. Take BP, themost prominent corporate advocate of actionon climate change, with its “Beyond Petroleum” ad campaign, highprofileinvestments in green energy, and even a “carbon calculator” on its website that helps consumers measuretheir personal “carbon footprint”, or overall emissions of carbon. Yet, critics complain, BP's recent record profits arelargely thanks to sales of huge amounts of carbon-packed oil and gas.On the other hand, some free-market thinkers see the support of firms for regulation of carbon as the latestattempt at “regulatory capture”, by those who stand to profit from new rules. Max Schulz of the ManhattanInstitute, a conservative think tank, notes darkly that “Enron was into pushing the idea of climate change, becauseit was good for its business”.Others argue that climate change has no more place in corporate boardrooms than do discussions of other partisanpolitical issues, such as Darfur or gay marriage. That criticism, at least, is surely wrong. Most of the corporateconverts say they are acting not out of some vague sense of social responsibility, or even personal angst, butbecause climate change creates real business risks and opportunities—from regulatory compliance to insuringclients on flood plains. And although these concerns vary hugely from one company to the next, few firms can besure of remaining unaffected. Testing timesResearchers are working on ways to reduce the need for animal experiments, but new laws mayincrease the number of experiments neededIN AN ideal world, people would not perform experiments on animals. For the people, they are expensive. For theanimals, they are stressful and often painful.That ideal world, sadly, is still some way away. People need new drugs and vaccines. They want protection fromthe toxicity of chemicals. The search for basic scientific answers goes on. Indeed, the European Commission isforging ahead with proposals that will increase the number of animal experiments carried out in the EuropeanUnion, by requiring toxicity tests on every chemical approved for use within the union's borders in the past 25years.Already, the commission has identified 140,000 chemicals that have not yet been tested. It wants 30,000 of theseto be examined right away, and plans to spend between €4 billion-8 billion ($5 billion-10 billion) doing so. Thenumber of animals used for toxicity testing in Europe will thus, experts reckon, quintuple from just over 1m a yearto about 5m, unless they are saved by some dramatic advances in non-animal testing technology. At the moment,roughly 10% of European animal tests are for general toxicity, 35% for basic research, 45% for drugs andvaccines, and the remaining 10% avariety of uses such as diagnosing diseases.Animal experimentation will therefore be around for some time yet. But the hunt for substitutes continues, and lastweekend the Middle European Society for Alternative Methods to Animal Testing met in Linz, Austria, to reviewprogress.A good place to start finding alternatives for toxicity tests is the liver—the organ responsible for breaking toxicchemicals down into safer molecules that can then be excreted. Two firms, one large and one small, told themeeting how they were using human liver cells removed incidentally during surgery to test various substances forlong-term toxic effects.PrimeCyte, the small firm, grows its cells in cultures over a few weeks and doses them regularly with the substanceunder investigation. The characteristics of the cells are carefully monitored, to look for changes in theirmicroanatomy.Pfizer, the big firm, also doses its cultures regularly, but rather than studying individual cells in detail, it counts cellnumbers. If the number of cells in a culture changes after a sample is added, that suggests the chemical inquestion is bad for the liver.In principle, these techniques could be applied to any chemical. In practice, drugs (and, in the case of PrimeCyte,food supplements) are top of the list. But that might change if the commission has itsway: those 140,000screenings look like a lucrative market, although nobody knows whether the new tests will be ready for use by2009, when the commission proposes that testing should start.Other tissues, too, can be tested independently of animals. Epithelix, a small firm in Geneva, has developed anartificial version of the lining of the lungs. According to Huang Song, one of Epithelix's researchers, the firm'scultured cells have similar microanatomy to those found in natural lung linings, and respond in the same way tovarious chemical messengers. Dr Huang says that they could be used in long-term toxicity tests of airbornechemicals and could also help identify treatments for lung diseases.The immune system can be mimicked and tested, too. ProBioGen, a company based in Berlin, is developing anartificial human lymph node which, it reckons, could have prevented the near-disastrous consequences of a drugtrial held in Britain three months ago, in which (despite the drug having passed animal tests) six men sufferedmultiple organ failure and nearly died. The drug the men were given made their immune systems hyperactive.Such a response would, the firm's scientists reckon, have been identified by their lymph node, which is made fromcells that provoke the immune system into a response. ProBioGen's lymph node could thus work better than animaltesting.Another way of cutting the number of animal experiments would be tochange the way that vaccines are tested, according to CoenraadHendriksen of the Netherlands Vaccine Institute. At the moment, allbatches of vaccine are subject to the same battery of tests. DrHendriksen argues that this is over-rigorous. When new vaccine culturesare made, belt-and-braces tests obviously need to be applied. But if abatch of vaccine is derived from an existing culture, he suggests that itneed be tested only to make sure it is identical to the batch from which itis derived. That would require fewer test animals.All this suggests that though there is still some way to go before drugs,vaccines and other substances can be tested routinely on cells ratherthan live animals, useful progress is being made. What is harder to see ishow the use of animals might be banished from fundamental research.Anger managementTo one emotion, men are more sensitive than womenMEN are notoriously insensitive to the emotional world around them. At least, that is the stereotype peddled by athousand women's magazines. And a study by two researchers at the University of Melbourne, in Australia,confirms that men are, indeed, less sensitive to emotion than women, with one important and suggestiveexception. Men are acutely sensitive to the anger of other men.Mark Williams and Jason Mattingley, whose study has just been published in Current Biology, looked at the way aperson's sex affects his or her response to emotionally charged facial expressions. People from all cultures agreeon what six basic expressions of emotion look like. Whether the face before you is expressing anger, disgust, fear,joy, sadness or surprise seems to be recognised universally—which suggests that the expressions involved areinnate, rather than learned.Dr Williams and Dr Mattingley showed the participants in their study photographs of these emotional expressions inmixed sets of either four or eight. They asked the participants to look for a particular sort of expression, andmeasured the amount of time it took them to find it. The researchers found, in agreement with previous studies,that both men and women identified angry expressions most quickly. But they also found that anger was morequickly identified on a male face than a female one.Moreover, most participants could find an angry face just as quickly when it was mixed in a group of eightphotographs as when it was part of a group of four. That was in stark contrast to the other five sorts of expression,which took more time to find when they had to be sorted from a larger group. This suggests that something in thebrain is attuned to picking out angry expressions, and that it isespecially concerned about angry men. Also, thishighly tuned ability seems more important to males than females, since the two researchers found that men pickedout the angry expressions faster than women did, even though women were usually quicker than men to recognizeevery other sort of facial expression.Dr Williams and Dr Mattingley suspect the reason for this is that being able to spot an angry individual quickly hasa survival advantage—and, since anger is more likely to turn into lethal violence in men than in women, the abilityto spot angry males quickly is particularly valuable.As to why men are more sensitive to anger than women, it is presumably because they are far more likely to getkilled by it. Most murders involve men killing other men—even today the context of homicide is usually aspontaneous dispute over status or sex.The ability to spot quickly that an alpha male is in a foul mood would thus have great survival value. It would allowthe sharp-witted time to choose appeasement, defence or possibly even pre-emptive attack. And, if it is right, thisstudy also confirms a lesson learned by generations of bar-room tough guys and schoolyard bullies: if you wantattention, get angry.The shareholders' revoltA turning point in relations between company owners and bosses?SOMETHING strange has been happening this year at company annual meetings in America:shareholders have been voting decisively against the recommendations of managers. Until now, mostshareholders have, like so many sheep, routinely voted in accordance with the advice of the people theyemploy to run the company. This year managers have already been defeated at some 32 companies,including household names such as Boeing, ExxonMobil and General Motors.This shareholders' revolt has focused entirely on one issue: the method by which members of the boardof directors are elected. Shareholder resolutions on other subjects have mostly been defeated, as usual.The successful resolutions called for directors to be elected by majority voting, instead of by thetraditional method of “plurality”—which in practice meant that only votes cast in favour were counted,and that a single vote for a candidate would be enough to get him elected.Several companies, led by Pfizer, a drug giant, saw defeat looming and pre-emptively adopted a formalmajority-voting policy that was weaker than in the shareholder resolution. This required any director whofailed to secure a majority of votes to tender his resignation to the board, which would then be free todecide whether or not to accept it. Under the shareholder resolution, any candidatefailing to secure amajority of the votes cast simply would not be elected. Intriguingly, the shareholder resolution wasdefeated at four-fifths of the firms that adopted a Pfizer-style majority voting rule, whereas it succeedednearly nine times out of ten at firms retaining the plurality rule.Unfortunately for shareholders, their victories may prove illusory, as the successful resolutions were all“precatory”—meaning that they merely advised management on the course of action preferred byshareholders, but did not force managers to do anything. Several resolutions that tried to imposemajority voting on firms by changing their bylaws failed this year.Even so, wise managers should voluntarily adopt majority voting, according to Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen &Katz, a Wall Street law firm that has generally helped managers resist increases in shareholder power butnow expects majority voting eventually to “become universal”. It advises th at, at the very least,managers should adopt the Pfizer model, if only to avoid becoming the subject of even greater scrutinyfrom corporate-governance activists. Some firms might choose to go further, as Dell and Intel have donethis year, and adopt bylaws requiring majority voting.Shareholders may have been radicalised by the success last year of a lobbying effort by managersagainst a proposal from regulatorsto make it easier for shareholders to put up candidates in boardelections. It remains to be seen if they will be back for more in 2007. Certainly, some of the activistshareholders behind this year's resolutions have big plans. Where new voting rules are in place, they plancampaigns to vote out the chairman of the compensation committee at any firm that they think overpaysthe boss. If the 2006 annual meeting was unpleasant for managers, next year's could be far worse.Intangible opportunitiesCompanies are borrowing against their copyrights, trademarks and patentsNOT long ago, the value of companies resided mostly in things you could see and touch. Today it liesincreasingly in intangible assets such as the McDonald's name, the patent for Viagra and the rights toSpiderman. Baruch Lev, a finance professor at New York University's Stern School of Business, puts theimplied value of intangibles on American companies' balance sheets at about $6 trillion, or two-thirds ofthe total. Much of this consists of intellectual property, the collective name for copyrights, trademarksand patents. Increasingly, companies and their clever bankers are using these assets to raise cash.The method of choice is securitisation, the issuing of bondsbased on the various revenues thrown off byintellectual property. Late last month Dunkin' Brands, owner of Dunkin' Donuts, a snack-bar chain, raised$1.7 billion by selling bonds backed by, among other things, the royalties it will receive from itsfranchisees. The three private-equity firms that acquired Dunkin' Brands a few months ago have used thecash to repay the money they borrowed to buy the chain. This is the biggest intellectual-propertysecuritisation by far, says Jordan Yarett of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, a law firm that hasworked on many such deals.Securitisations of intellectual property can be based on revenues from copyrights, trademarks (such aslogos) or patents. The best-known copyright deal was the issue in 1997 of $55m-worth of “Bowie Bonds”supported by the future sales of music by David Bowie, a British rock star. Bonds based on the films ofDreamWorks, Marvel comic books and the stories of John Steinbeck have also been sold. As well asDunkin' Brands, several restaurant chains and fashion firms have issued bonds backed by logos andbrands.Intellectual-property deals belong to a class known as operating-asset securitisations. These differ fromstandard securitisations of future revenues, such as bonds backed by the payments on a 30-yearmortgage or a car loan, in that the borrower has to make his asset work. If investors are to recoup theirmoney, theassets being securitised must be “actively exploited”, says Mr Yarett: DreamWorks mustcontinue to churn out box-office hits.The market for such securitisations is still small. Jay Eisbruck, of Moody's, a rating agency, reckons thataround $10 billion-worth of bonds ar e outstanding. But there is “big potential,” he says, pointing out thatlicensing patented technology generates $100 billion a year and involves thousands of companies.Raising money this way can make sense not only for clever private-equity firms, but also for companieswith low (or no) credit ratings that cannot easily tap the capital markets or with few tangible assets ascollateral for bank loans. Some universities have joined in, too. Yale built a new medical complex withsome of the roughly $100m it raised securitising patent royalties from Zerit, an anti-HIV drug.It may be harder for investors to decide whether such deals are worth their while. They are, after all,highly complex and riskier than standard securitisations. The most obvious risk is that the investorscannot be sure that the assets will yield what borrowers promise: technology moves on, fashions changeand the demand for sugary snacks may collapse. Valuing intellectual property—an exercise based onforecasting the timing and amount of future cashflows—is more art than science.。

英文期刊《经济学人》汉译英时政词语点评As one of the most influential English-language periodicals, The Economist not only provides insightful analysis and commentary on economics, business, and finance, but also offers comprehensive coverage of global politics and current affairs. With its unique perspective and distinctive style, The Economist has been a valuable source ofinformation and inspiration for people around the world, especially for those who are interested in understanding the latest developments and trends in the ever-changing world.In recent years, the translation of political terms and phrases from Chinese to English has become a hot topic in the academic and professional circles. Many scholars, translators, and language experts have devoted considerable efforts to studying and analyzing the challenges and opportunities of translating political discourse from Chinese to English, as well as exploring the cultural and linguistic factors thatmay influence the translation process and the reception ofthe translated texts.Against this backdrop, this paper aims to provide acritical review and analysis of the translation of political terms and phrases from English to Chinese in The Economist, with a focus on the linguistic and cultural difficulties and the strategies and techniques adopted by the translators to overcome them. Specifically, the paper will examine five selected articles from The Economist that cover various aspects of global politics and current affairs, and analyzethe translation of the key terms and phrases in thesearticles from English to Chinese.The five articles selected for this study are: "The Rise of Populist Nationalism in Europe", "The North Korean Nuclear Crisis", "The Future of the Trans-Pacific Partnership", "The Rohingya Refugee Crisis", and "The Catalan Independence Referendum". These articles touch upon some of the most pressing and complex issues facing the world today, such as the rise of populism and nationalism in Western Europe, the nuclear threat posed by North Korea, the challenges and opportunities of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar, and the political turbulence in Catalonia. By examining the translation of these articles, we can gain a deeper understanding of the linguistic and cultural difficulties involved in translating political discourse, as well as the strategies and techniques that can be used to produce effective and accurate translations.One of the most important challenges of translating political discourse from English to Chinese is the linguistic and cultural gap between the two languages and cultures. English is a highly idiomatic and metaphorical language that often uses complex and abstract terms and phrases to convey its meanings. Chinese, on the other hand, is a relatively more literal and concrete language that relies more on context and syntax to convey its meanings. As a result, translating political discourse from English to Chinese requires a deep understanding of both languages and cultures, as well as a great deal of creativity and flexibility.In the article "The Rise of Populist Nationalism in Europe", the translator faces the challenge of translating the key phrase "populist nationalism" into Chinese. Thetranslator decides to use the term "民粹主义"(min4cui4zhu3yi4), which combines the Chinese words for "people" (民) and "pure" (粹), and the English word "ism". This translation effectively conveys the meaning of the term and captures its connotations in English. However, the use of the term "minzhu" (民主), which means "democracy" in Chinese, may cause confusion among Chinese readers who are notfamiliar with the concept of "populist nationalism" in the Western context.In the article "The North Korean Nuclear Crisis", the translator faces the challenge of translating the key term "denuclearization" into Chinese. The translator decides to use the term "无核化" (wu2he2hua4), which literally means "removal of nuclear weapons". This translation effectively conveys the meaning of the term and captures its connotations in English. However, the use of the term "he" (核), which means "nuclear" in Chinese, may cause confusion among Chinese readers who are not familiar with the context of the North Korean nuclear crisis.In the article "The Future of the Trans-Pacific Partnership", the translator faces the challenge of translating the key term "free trade" into Chinese. The translator decides to use the term "自由贸易"(zi4you2mao4yi4), which combines the Chinese words for "freedom" (自由) and "trade" (贸易). This translation effectively conveys the meaning of the term and captures its connotations in English. However, the use of the term "maoyi" (贸易), which means "trade" in Chinese, may not fully capture the complexity and depth of the term "free trade" in the Western context.In the article "The Rohingya Refugee Crisis", thetranslator faces the challenge of translating the key term "ethnic cleansing" into Chinese. The translator decides to use the term "种族清洗" (zhong3zu2qing1xi3), which combines the Chinese words for "ethnic group" (种族) and "cleaning" (清洗). This translation effectively conveys the meaning of the term and captures its connotations in English. However, the use of the term "qingxi" (清洗), which means "cleaning" in Chinese, may not fully capture the brutality and violence of the term "ethnic cleansing" in the Western context.In the article "The Catalan Independence Referendum", the translator faces the challenge of translating the key phrase "illegal referendum" into Chinese. The translator decides to use the term "非法公投" (fei1fa3gong1tou2), which combines the Chinese words for "illegal" (非法) and "referendum" (公投). This translation effectively conveys the meaning of the term and captures its connotations in English. However, the use of the term "gongtou" (公投), which means "referendum" in Chinese, may not fully capture the political significance and implications of the term "referendum" in the Western context.In conclusion, the translation of political terms and phrases from English to Chinese is a complex and challenging task that requires a deep understanding of both languages and cultures, as well as a great deal of creativity and flexibility. The five articles selected for this study provide a comprehensive and diverse sample of the political discourse in English and Chinese, and offer valuable insights and lessons for translators, scholars, and language learners who are interested in bridging the linguistic and cultural gap between the two languages and cultures.。

Farewell, Tim Geithner再见，蒂莫西•盖特纳Lessons learnt经验教训The outgoing treasury secretary sits down with The Economist one last time 即将离职的财政部长最后一次受访《经济学人》杂志Jan 19th 2013 | WASHINGTON, DC |From the print edition2013年1月19日| 华盛顿| 打印版Almost free 快解脱了。

IF THE Republicans do not raise the ceiling on America’s government debt, Barack Obama said on January 14th, the markets will go “haywire” and the country will plunge back into crisis. Tim Geithner, his treasury secretary, noted on the same day that this could happen in as little as a month from now.1月14日，奥巴马总统表示，如果共和党不提高美国债务上限，那么美国市场将失控，整个国家将再次深陷危机。

奥巴马政府的财政部长蒂莫西•盖特纳也在同日表示，这样的情况或许在最快不到一月之内就会发生。

But if all goes according to plan, Mr Geithner will not be around by then; he will have handed the reins to Jack Lew, currently the White House chief of staff. That could be a pity. Thousands of people have studied financial crises, but it would be hard to name anyone who has actually grappled with as many as Mr Geithner (see chart). While working in the 1990s for Robert Rubin and Larry Summers, Bill Clinton’s treasury secretaries, he dealt with currency and banking crises throughout the emerging world. When the global financial crisis erupted in 2007, he was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; this gave him a key role in the Fed’s response, including the bail-outs of Bear Stearns and AIG, an insurance company, and the decision to let Lehman Brothers fail. As Mr Obama’s treasury secretary, he designed and carried out the stress tests and capital injections that stabilised the banking system, as well as multiple mortgage schemes that ultimately did little to curb an avalanche of foreclosures.但是按照原计划，现财政部长盖特纳在那时已经卸任，现任白宫幕僚长杰克•卢将接过财政部长一职。

Good morning! Ladies and gentleman! Let me first describe to you a fantasy world in my mind.At night, a stream of carsareshuttlingthrough the lighted Citywith nuclear energy, which allows the car to run continuously for 100 years without padding any fuel. Enjoy the fresh air, bright sky, inexhaustible energy, worry-free life. In the depletion of traditional energy, nuclear power has become one of the main energy supporting city operation.However, this rosy picture was deeply broken by the Japanese nuclear incident in March 2011. People can not help but called a big question mark in the heart: nuclear power: blessing or disaster?As we all know, nuclear energy is a kind of safe and clean energy,On the one hand, as a future substitute for fossil fuels,its greenhouse gas emissions almost to zero,and since the nuclear fuel is expended only as much asone-third coal, moreover ,all fission energyreleased by1 kilograms of uranium fission,roughly equivalent to 2500 tons of coal or 2,000 tons of oil combustion energy released, it is believed that nuclear power exactly more economical and durable. On the other hand,Compared with other new energy sources such as wind ` hydro `solar `bio-energy, nuclear power also could not be neglected in advantage. Not only can it grows extremely fast, but also be used on a large scale.Especially with the energy supply and demand contradiction hardly reconciled and theenvironmental protection pressure over-burdened.Obviously ,Theuse of nuclear energy has become an important guarantee for the energy strategy to achieve sustainable development and the construction of human society in future.However, in March 2011, Fukushima Japan nuclear leak has sounded the alarm for human usingnuclear power.Recallingthe process of nuclear energy of developed byhuman,nuclear crisis, orcontinue to unfold.TheWimWenders Kyle nuclear power plant incident in 1957 has been the UK's "political minefield",In 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear leaks into the anti-nuclear movement "assembly", and In 1986, the Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear accident led to a major disaster, making people "on the nuclear pale." According to data from the world nuclear association, there are 201 nuclear power plants in the whole world, besides, 443 nuclear power plant is running, not including plants under construction or design. Some people even regardtwenty-first Centuryas "the nuclear century“.This high-density aggregation of nuclear power plants critically disturbs people’s mind:whether the Earth is becoming a time bomb, exploding the future of mankind in any time.But please note,the history of the nuclear leakage tragedy mostly caused by design defects and deliberately concealmentofpotential safety hazard, that is to say, the cardinal reason is human factor.With the rapid development of science and technology, nuclear power plant safety performance has greatly improved, what aspect we should pay more attention to is the loopholes in management.I have always believed that human have two kinds of rational, one is technology, another is reflection.The Fukushima nuclear explosion may be nothing less than an improvement opportunity, because the concern on technology and capacity of their ownprecisely represent human’s prudent and wise. Nuclear power plant is an achievement of human technological development and humanity's achievements, but more rational, is that of rational reflection.Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has said: "nuclear energy should be as a last alternative energy", in a time of frustration, we should not stop the pace of progress, nuclear power is a benefit or destruction, rests in you, I, of all mankind hands, I do believe thatthe world in my mind will eventually become a reality!。

Nuclear Power, Blessing or Disaster to HumankindLadies and gentlemen, it is my honor to have this opportunity to voice out my opinion here. When it comes to the nuclear power, most people show great concern about it, especially after the explosion of Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant. It’s natural that we should have the awareness of safety. However, we shouldn’t ignore the great benefit that nuclear plants bring to us human beings.Nuclear power plants provide about 17 percent of the world's electricity. Some countries depend more on nuclear power for electricity than others. In France, for instance, about 75 percent of the electricity is generated from nuclear power. There are more than 400 nuclear power plants around the world.As we all know, Well-constructed nuclear power plants have an important advantage especially in the electrical power generation——they are extremely clean. Compared with a fossil-fired power plant, nuclear power plants provide large quantity of energy out of so little material. Unfortunately, there are significant problems with nuclear power plants. Mining and purifying uranium has not been a very clean process. Improperly functioning nuclear power plants can cause big problems. Spent fuel from nuclear power plants is toxic for centuries, and, as yet, there is no safe, permanent storage facility for it.So the best solution here is to improve the technology of using nuclear power. In addition, promoting the worker’s safety awareness and maintaining the equipment regularly are necessary. I believe that only in this way, can we make the most of the nuclear power and benefit from it to the fullest.机械1105 高快2班41140128王淏楠。

旺旺英语Lesson 8Here Comes Korea, Inc.Like Japan in the 1960s, the old “Hermit Kingdom” is poised for将迎来an assault 冲击on the world’s markets像20世纪60年代的日本一样，一个古老的“闭关自守的国家”已准备好向世界市场发起冲击。

The ritual begins shortly after dawn. As the early morning light filters through the windows of Lucky-$8 billion conglomerate, issues instructions that echo around the world. In Huntsville, Ala., 200of things to come. As one of Koo’s lieutenants puts it: “Our future lies in becoming a truly global company.”黎明后，仪式开始。

当晨光透过汉城乐喜金星公司高耸的总部大厦的窗户时，这家拥有80亿美元资本的跨行业公司董事长具滋暻向全世界发布了引起反响的指示。

在阿拉巴马州的亨茨维尔，200名产业工人每年生产100万台“金星”彩电。

在加利福尼亚的硅谷，身着白色工装的研究人员在探索目前最先进的半导体技术的秘密。

在沙特阿拉伯的著拜尔，该公司正在进行一个新的宠大石油化学企业的最后试验。

这充分显示了其全球的势力范围，也是即发生的许多事情的预兆。

正如具滋暻的一名下属所言：“我们的未来就是成为一个真正的全球性公司。

”For South Korea as a whole, that seems as much a prophecy as an ambition. Like Japan in the 1960s, the country is poised for an assault on the world’s export markets. Its surging $81 billion economy is churning out a flood of increasingly sophisticated products, from shoes, toys and telephones to video recorders and microprocessors. Korea’s mighty conglomerates dominate Middle East construction, and they command key shares of the world’s shipbuilding, textile and steel industries. Their affiliates, joint ventures and subsidiaries girdle the globe, stretching from Australia, Indonesia and India to Norway, Spain and Gabon, Hyundai and Daewoo, with annual sales of $10 billion and $6 billion respectively, are pushing into the U.S. auto market, riveting the attention of American and Japanese manufacturers. Another colossus, the $9 billion Samsung, has started marketing a “super-tech” 256K computer chip—encouraging some Koreans to speak confidently of the day when they will become the world’s second largest manufacturer of basic electronic components, outstripping America and running just behind Japan.对整个韩国来说，那似乎不仅是个预言，也是个理想；像20世纪60年代的日本一样，这个国家准备向世界出口市场发起攻击。