TASK 7. Give a short summary of the text.

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TASK 8. Give annotation of the text.

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TEXT 10

THE ATOMIC POWER PLANT

Industry depends on power. The industrial development of the last 200 years has been based primarily on the exploitation of coal and later of oil. In some parts of the world the force of flowing water has been used to generate electricity.

Now a new fuel and a new source of power is put to the service of mankind. The fuel is uranium and the source of power is atomic power.

Nuclear power plants offer a new means of making power available in regions where the cost of transport is nearing its economic limits. One of the great advantages of atomic power stations is the fact they can be built in the very region where power is to be used. As a result long electric transmission lines become unnecessary. The atomic power plant is a typical steam power installation with the electricity generated by a steam turbine operated by water converted into steam as a result of uranium fission.

The principal components of the power plant equipment are:

A. The nuclear reactor.

B. The heat exchanger in which the steam is produced.

C. The steam turbine.

The power plant has two main water circulation circuits: first — between the reactor and the steam exchanger for transferring heat and second — between the steam exchanger and the turbine for producing steam to drive the turbine.

The scientists have designed a few types of reactors. The reactors will operate with a mixture of natural and enriched uranium. Atomic power stations are advantageous because of their low fuel consumption. If the capacity of an atomic power station is assumed to be one million kilowatts and its efficiency 25 per cent, only about 500 kg of fuel will be required to ensure the operation of the reactors for 24 hours. Atomic power plants will meet the ever-increasing demand for power by using a new source of energy, a source allowing the great industrial systems to continue hundreds — even thousands of years beyond the time when the conventional sources of power will have been exhausted.

Britain's first atomic station has begun to generate poweri in 1956. It supplies atomic power instead of eleoric power for' industrial purposes over a large area. Yet the station designed to generate great amounts of cheap electricity is known to produce large quantities of plutonium, a basic material for military purposes. It was reported that in Great Britain atomic power stations ranging from 20,000 to 300,000 kw were being designed. The total capacity of the stations was expected to be increased to 1,5-2 million kilowatts by 1965. Britain is supossed to stop the building of steam power stations and to go over entirely to atomic stations.

Atomic power plants are modern installations. They consist of several main units and a great numbers of auxiliary ones.

In a nuclear reactor uranium is utilized as a fuel. During operation process powerful heat and radioactive radiation are produced. The nuclear reactor is cooled by water circulatoin. Cooling water circulates through a system of tubes, in which the water is heated to a temperature of 250-300°C. In order to prevent boiling of water, it passes into the reactor at a pressure up to 150 atmospheres.

A steam generator includes a series of heat exchangers comprising tubes. The water heated in the reactor is delivered into the heat exchanger tubes. The water to be converted into steam flows outside these tubes. The steam produced is fed into the turbogenerator.

Besides, an atomic power plant comprises a common turbogenerator, a steam condenser with circulating water and a switchboard.

Atomic power plants have their advantages as well as disadvantages. Their reactors and steam generators operate noiselessly; the atmosphere is not polluted by dust and smoke.

PHRASES & WORD COMBINATIONS TO THE TEXT

1. mankind - человечества
2. uranium - уран
3. nuclear - ядерный
4. available - наличный, имеющийся в распоряжении
5. cost - стоимость, цена; (pl) издержки
6. to near - приближаться, подходить
7. advantage - выгода, польза, преимущество
8. installation - установка, устройство
9. fission - расщепление, деление клеток
10. equipment - снаряжение, оборудование
11. exchanger - обменник
12. circulation - циркуляция, обращение
13. circuit - цепь (эл)
14. consumption -потребление, расход
15. to assume - предполагать, допускать
16. efficiency - эффективность, производительность
17. to ensure - обеспечивать, гарантировать
18. carload - вагон как мера групп
19. brown coal - бурый уголь
20. to enrich - обогащать
21. to demand - требовать
22. to allow - позволять, предоставлять, допускать
23. beyond - вдали; за, но ту сторону, позже, после
24. conventional - общепринятый, обычный, традиционный
25. to exhaust - истощать, исчерпывать, опустошать
26. to meet -удовлетворять; встречать
27. to transfer - переносить, перемещать
28. reactor - реактор, атомный котел
29. ever - когда-либо, всегда

EXERCISES

TASK 1. Answer the questions:

1.What fuels were exploited for the last 200 years? _________________________

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2.What is a new fuel and a new source of power put to the service of mankind?

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3.What do nuclear power plants offer? ___________________________________

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4. What is one of the great advantages of atomic power stations? ______________

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5. Is the consumption of fuel lower at the atomic power stations compared to that at the ordinary power stations? _________________________________________

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6.What is the atomic power plant in general? ______________________________

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7.How is electricity generated at the atomic power plants? ___________________

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8.How is water converted into steam? ____________________________________

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9.What are the principal components of the atomic power plant equipment?

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10. What are the two main water circulation circuits? _______________________

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11.Will atomic power plants meet the ever-increasing demands for power? ______

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TASK 2. Give Russian equivalents:

nuclear

reactor

capacity

installation

equipment

fission

exchanger

mixture

consumption

carload

to exliaust

to transfer

to meet

uranium

efficiency

to assume

to demand

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TASK 3. Translate into Russian:

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atomic power stations

transmission lines

steam power installations

heat exchanger

low fuel consumption

nuclear installations

power engineering

neutron reactors

fast neutron reactors

power capacity concentration

____________________________________________________________nuclear power concentration

fast neutron nuclear installations

TASK 4. Fill the gaps:

1.Daily inflow of water (колеблется) __________________considerably.

2.Economical (потребление) ___________________of electic power is achieved by interconnected operaton of power plant.

3. (Преимущество) ________________of an atomic electric power plant is its high (эффективность) _______________________.

TASK 5. Translate into Russian:

1.For the measurement of direct current, the ammeter contains a permanent magnet between the poles of which is placed a coil carrying the current to be measured.

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2.At least 90 per cent of electric energy to be generated at present a.c. (alternating current), though there are many cases when d.c. (direct current) is required.

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3.A.c. can be increased or decreased to meet industrial requirements. ___________

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4.To generate electricity, dynamos — the generator and the alternator — must be provided with energy from some source of mechanical energy (alternator — генератор переменного тока). _________________________________________

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5.In order to reduce power loss in the line, it is necessary to reduce the current through conductors. __________________________________________________

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6.A steam turbine needs boilers to provide steam. __________________________

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7.Calibration is the graduation of an instrument to enable measurements in definite units to be made with it. ______________________________________________

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8.A fuse is a device to prevent an excessive cuurent from passing through the circuit. It is known to include a wire made of metal with low melting point. An excessive current increases the temperature of the wire sufficiently to melt it and thus to break the circuit. ______________________________________________

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9.Since atomic energy is developed in a reactor in the form of heat, both heat and power result. _______________________________________________________

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