托福阅读素材：Nuclear energy Putting to sea。要想托福阅读成绩有所提高，要经常进行阅读练习。
Atomic power stations that float on the ocean or are anchored beneath it may have advantages over those built on land.
Nuclear energy
Putting to sea
Atomic power stations that float on the ocean or are anchored beneath it may have advantages over those built on land
核能
出海
浮在海面或拴在海底的核电站可能会比陆地上的同类更具优势
AFTER
the events of March 11th 2011, when an earthquake and tsunami led to a meltdown of three nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant in Japan, you might be forgiven for concluding that atomic power and seawater don’t mix. Many engineers, though, do not agree. They would like to see more seawater involved, not less. In fact, they have plans to site nuclear power plants in the ocean rather than on land—either floating on the surface or moored beneath it.2011年3月11日，一场地震和海啸导致日本福岛第一核电站的三座核反应堆熔毁。假如你由此得出结论，称核能和海水不能搅和在一起，那也是情有可原。但许多工程师并不这么想。他们希望掺和进来的海水更多些，而不是更少。实际上，他们已经有各种计划，在海上而非陆地上建造核电站。这些核电站或是漂浮在海面上，或是停泊在海面下。
At first, this sounds a mad idea. It is not. Land-based power stations are bespoke structures, built by the techniques of civil engineering, in which each is slightly different and teams of specialists come and go according to the phase of the project. Marine stations, by contrast, could be mass-produced in factories using, if not the techniques of the assembly line, then at least those of the shipyard, with crews constantly employed.乍一听，这太疯狂了。实则不然。陆上发电站是倚赖土木工程技术建造的定制结构，每座都略有不同，在工程的不同阶段会有各种老师团队来来往往。海上发电站则不同，它们可以在工厂里批量建造，使用的即便不是流水线作业技术，也至少是造船厂的那类技术，而员工是固定的。
That would make power stations at sea cheaper than those on land. Jacopo Buongiorno, a nuclear engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, reckons that, when all is done and dusted, electricity from a marine station would cost at least a third less than that from a terrestrial equivalent. It would also make them safer. A reactor anchored on the seabed would never lack emergency cooling, the problem that caused the Fukushima meltdown. Nor would it need to be protected against the risk of terrorists flying an aircraft into it. It would be tsunami-proof, too. Though tsunamis become great and destructive waves when they arrive in shallow water, in the open ocean they are mere ripples. Indeed, were it deep enough (100 metres or so), such a submarine reactor would not even be affected by passing storms.这会让海上发电站比陆上发电站的造价更便宜。麻省理工中心的核电工程师雅各布·布翁焦尔诺(Jacopo Buongiorno)认为，建成后，海上发电站提供的电力价格将比陆上发电站便宜至少三分之一。前者也更安全。一座被锚定在海床上的反应堆永远不缺紧急冷却，而冷却系统失灵正是福岛核电站反应堆熔毁的原因。它也无需防范恐怖分子会驾着飞机撞过来。它还能防海啸——虽然海啸在抵达浅水区时会变成破坏性的巨浪，但在广阔的海域它们只是些微的涟漪。实际上，假如在海面下足够深的地方(100米左右)，这样的水下反应堆甚至不会受到过路风暴的影响。
以上便是关于托福阅读的相关介绍。更多详情，欢迎咨询朗阁在线老师。
