2006年VOA标准英语-Countries Agree to Pursue Fusion Energy Researc

By David McAlary
Washington
21 November 2006

The United States and more than 30 other nations have signed a $13 - billion agreement to develop a form of nuclear power in a process called fusion¹. In a Paris signing ceremony, they agreed to cooperate to build an experimental reactor² intended to mimic³ the way stars make energy, with the hope it can eventually lead to a plentiful⁴ supply of cheap, clean and safe power.

The consortium brings together the United States, the European Union, Japan, Russia, China, South Korea, and India to build the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER for short, in southern France.

Yanhua Liu, left, Raymond Orbach, center, Vladimir Travin, right, make toast at end of signing ceremony

The U.S. delegate to the signing, Raymond Orbach, says the project will be carried out on an unprecedented⁵ scale for the betterment of a world dependent on fossil fuels, such as oil and coal.

"ITER has the potential to free the quickly growing global economy and population from the looming⁶ constraints⁷ of decreasing energy supplies and the unfortunate effects of environmental degradation," Orbach said.

ITER began with an agreement at the 1985 U.S.-Soviet Geneva Summit. It was one result of a plan to develop joint⁸ activities to help reduce Cold War tensions. Other nations joined later.

But Congress ordered the U.S. government to withdraw in 1998 because it considered the original reactor design too expensive. Faced with a sharp drop in the budget, the remaining ITER members redesigned the reactor at half the cost, making it attractive again to the United States, which rejoined in 2003.

Debate over the location of the project was another source of political friction⁹. France and Japan both wanted it, but the partners agreed on France last year. In return, Japan pays lower construction costs and gets more staff, including the post of ITER director-general.

Now that the agreement is final, Raymond Orbach says the consortium can pursue development of the energy that powers stars.

"The fusion process is one of the most powerful ways of producing energy that nature has devised," he explained. "As examples of that, I simply suggest you look at the stars and realize how our sun is powered. So what we are trying to do is to take advantage of this quite remarkable¹⁰ property of nature that literally¹¹ keeps us alive."

In fusion, the nuclei¹² of light elements, such as hydrogen, fuse together inside stars to make heavier elements, such as helium. The fusing process gives off tremendous amounts of energy.

Using fusion to generate power, there would be none of the greenhouse gas byproducts of the sort fossil fuels emit. Nor would fusion produce radioactive material as does the other form of nuclear energy, called fission¹³. The source of hydrogen for the energy-producing reaction would be water.

The ITER reactor will use doughnut-shaped magnetic coils to induce an electric current in a mixture of charged particles, making conditions hot enough to create fusion reactions like those inside stars.

Environmental groups oppose the project. At the Washington branch of Friends of the Earth, Eric Pica says the program is a tremendous waste of money for the slight hope of producing fusion energy.

"You can make better investments by investing in renewable energy and energy conservation," Pica said. "We know these things will save energy and reduce our fossil fuel dependence¹⁴ now."

But Raymond Orbach, the U.S. Department of Energy's science director, says not pursuing fusion research would be an outrage¹⁵.

"We would be telling our world population that they do not have a chance of achieving the standard of living that the rest of us enjoy," Orbach said. "That is how serious it is if we do not pursue this opportunity."

Plans call for the eight-year construction of the ITER reactor to begin next year. Officials hope to have the unit working by 2040. They predict that if all goes well, fusion could provide 10 to 20 percent of the world's energy by the end of the century.

1 fusion   

n.溶化；熔解；熔化状态，熔和；熔接

参考例句：

• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc. 黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。
• This alloy is formed by the fusion of two types of metal.这种合金是用两种金属熔合而成的。

2 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

3 mimic   

v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人

参考例句：

• A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

4 plentiful   

adj.富裕的，丰富的

参考例句：

• Their family has a plentiful harvest this year.他们家今年又丰收了。
• Rainfall is plentiful in the area.这个地区雨量充足。

5 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

6 looming   

n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看，在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望

7 constraints   

强制( constraint的名词复数 )； 限制； 约束

参考例句：

• Data and constraints can easily be changed to test theories. 信息库中的数据和限制条件可以轻易地改变以检验假设。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• What are the constraints that each of these imply for any design? 这每种产品的要求和约束对于设计意味着什么？ 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

8 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

9 friction   

n.摩擦，摩擦力

参考例句：

• When Joan returned to work,the friction between them increased.琼回来工作后，他们之间的摩擦加剧了。
• Friction acts on moving bodies and brings them to a stop.摩擦力作用于运动着的物体，并使其停止。

10 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

11 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

12 nuclei   

n.核

参考例句：

• To free electrons, something has to make them whirl fast enough to break away from their nuclei. 为了释放电子，必须使电子高速旋转而足以摆脱原子核的束缚。
• Energy is released by the fission of atomic nuclei. 能量是由原子核分裂释放出来的。

13 fission   

n.裂开；分裂生殖

参考例句：

• The fission of the cell could be inhibited with certain chemicals.细胞的裂变可以通过某些化学药品加以抑制。
• Nuclear fission releases tremendous amounts of energy.核裂变释放出巨大的能量。

14 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。

15 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。