Nuclear Station Performance Fuels Industry Renaissance

PARTI

• Read the following texts below and define the main difference in the contents of the texts.

Fig. 10. Oconee Nuclear Plant

The US is producing not only more electricity than ever, but also more favorable consideration as a viable part of the nation's energy mix. Consider that, for the first time in decade, political leaders are proposing nuclear power as an important, long-term energy solution. And utility companies that canceled nuclear projects in the wake of the 1979 Three Mile Ireland accident are studying the feasibility of resurrecting these projects, while other power producers are investi­gating new nuclear plants orders. Even the mainstream media — known

favorable consideration благоприят­ное мнение in the wake of на поводу у кого-либо, под влиянием чего-либо accident авария to resurrect воскрешать, возрождать harsh treatment жесткое отношение renaissance Ренессанс, возрождение impetus стимул, толчок performance improvements улучшение рабочих характеристик

74 Section I. Power Engineering

for its harsh treatment of the industry - has begun talking in terms of a nuclear industry "renaissance".

The near-term impetus for this turn-around stems from recent events - regional power shortages, increased natural gas costs, and premium mar­ket prices for electricity. However, the fact that nuclear power is in the position to be favorably considered is a result of the substantial perfor­mance improvements achieved at US plants during the past decade.

Most important, these performance gains came with equally im­pressive improvements in safety indicators. For instance, the number of unusual events reported to the US NRC dropped from 151 in 1990 to just 18 in 2002. The challenge for individual nuclear stations is to con­tinue this momentum by solidifying competitive gains already achieved and squeezing further improvements from each unit.

US nuclear plants have done an excellent job of maintaining and improving plant design margins and operating reliability. Extensive monitoring and surveillance testing of plant systems, structures and components such as containment building, reactor vessel, reactor cool­ing system pressure boundary, steam generators, pressurizer, piping, pump casings, and valve bodies are performed yearly to verify the plant is maintained in excellent condition. Few if any nuclear plant compo­nents will require replacement specifically to achieve extended opera­tion for an additional 20 years.

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