2006年VOA标准英语-Nuclear Energy Hotly Debated in United States

By Richard Green
Washington
02 September 2006

There is a debate under way in the United States about the benefits of nuclear power, as the country looks for alternatives to its dependence¹ on foreign oil. Advocates say nuclear power will provide a clean and safe form of energy, but opponents say concerns about safety and what to do with nuclear waste far outweigh² any benefits.

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There are currently 104 nuclear power plants operating across the United States.  President Bush is calling for expanding the nation's reliance on nuclear power as part of his energy plan.

Supporters of nuclear energy say it will make the United States less dependent on foreign sources of oil.

But Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program for Public Citizen, a public-interest watchdog group, says increasing nuclear power will significantly reduce oil consumption.

"Oil is only used to power 1.2 percent of the nation's electricity," he noted³.  "Nuclear power is not used to power automobiles⁴, which is the biggest source of our oil consumption, and oil is not a significant source of electricity consumption.  So, increasing America's reliance on nuclear power is not going to alter the current oil demand balance that we have in this country."

Another contentious⁵ issue is the environmental impact of nuclear power plants.  Mal McKibben, a retired⁶ nuclear engineer who is now executive director of the non-profit Citizens for Nuclear Technology Awareness⁷, says nuclear power plants are environmentally safer than other types of energy producers, such as coal.

"Nuclear [power] does not produce any acid rain. It does not produce smog. It does not produce global warming, where[as] coal and gas do all of those things," he said.

Christine Todd Whitman headed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Bush. She is now co-chair of the Clean and Safe Energy Coalition⁸, a group, which advocates the use of nuclear energy. She agrees nuclear plants have little impact on the surrounding environment.

"The footprint of nuclear facilities are very small, so that, many times, you find that you get natural habitats in and around nuclear facilities, because they do have such a low impact on the surrounding community," she explained.

But Tyson Slocum of Public Citizen says nuclear power plants carry their own unique risk to the environment.

"Each facility produces hundreds of tons of high-level radioactive waste that sticks around in the environment for hundreds of thousands of years," he said.  "We currently have no solution of how to deal with the hundreds of tons of high-level radioactive waste safely, efficiently⁹ or environmentally sustainably."

President Bush has backed a controversial plan to build a storage facility for nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, a remote area in the western U.S. state of Nevada.  He also supports the recycling and reprocessing of nuclear waste through the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership¹⁰. 

McKibben, the former nuclear engineer, says there is an alternative to storing nuclear waste, recycling it.

"You use all the energy that's in that fuel," he said.  "Right now we're using less than 5 percent of it, by just going through one time and not recycling.  If we did recycle, we could use up at least 95 percent of it."

Opponents of nuclear energy also point out the possibility of an accident, citing the 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in the northeastern United States, and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in what is now Ukraine. 

But Dale Klein, the new chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, praised the nuclear industry's safety record during a recent talk with reporters in Washington.

"Chernobyl was a very unstable¹¹ reactor," he explained.  "The western world has no commercial reactors¹² like Chernobyl and its inherent instability characteristics.  The kinds of reactors in the western U.S. and [the kinds] Western Europe has are much more stable and have an excellent record."

But nuclear energy opponents, such as Dr. Ira Helfand with the group, Physicians for Social Responsibility, say there is a much more ominous¹³ risk involved with nuclear energy.

"I think, we have to look at nuclear power plants, basically, as prepositioned weapons of mass destruction that we place at various strategic points around our country, that we make available to terrorists, who might attack them in the future," said Dr. Helfand.

But the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Klein says the industry has beefed up security to ward¹⁴ off any potential terrorist attacks, particularly since the terrorist attacks on the United States of September 11, 2001.

"I believe the industry has responded very well after 9/11, they have spent a lot of money to make things better, and the security of the nuclear plants is quite good," he noted.

Klein says the nuclear industry must not become complacent¹⁵.

Nuclear energy opponents, however, say the United States should consider alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar power.

1 dependence   

n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属

参考例句：

• Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
• He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。

2 outweigh   

vt.比...更重，...更重要

参考例句：

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

3 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

4 automobiles   

n.汽车( automobile的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• When automobiles become popular,the use of the horse and buggy passed away. 汽车普及后，就不再使用马和马车了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Automobiles speed in an endless stream along the boulevard. 宽阔的林荫道上，汽车川流不息。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

6 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

7 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

8 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

9 efficiently   

adv.高效率地，有能力地

参考例句：

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

10 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

11 unstable   

adj.不稳定的，易变的

参考例句：

• This bookcase is too unstable to hold so many books.这书橱很不结实，装不了这么多书。
• The patient's condition was unstable.那患者的病情不稳定。

12 reactors   

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

参考例句：

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

13 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

14 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

15 complacent   

adj.自满的；自鸣得意的

参考例句：

• We must not become complacent the moment we have some success.我们决不能一见成绩就自满起来。
• She was complacent about her achievements.她对自己的成绩沾沾自喜。