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основном все детали кузова изготовляются из тонкой листовой стали с
помощью штамповки.
Упражнение 3. Promise to beat Kyoto emission target puts power row
centre stage
A RASH promise made 11 years ago has forced the Government to embrace nuclear
power. By undertaking to cut carbon emissions by 20 per cent before 2010, the
Labour Party, which was then in opposition, won plaudits from environmentalists.
The pledge went far beyond the Kyoto commitment.
Now it is plain that the target will be missed: Britain’s carbon emissions have risen
two years running. Meeting future obligations will also be impossible unless the
Government changes its course.
Age is catching up with Britain’s nuclear plants and replacements – unless they are
also nuclear – would emit much more carbon dioxide. Britain risks slipping even
further behind its targets, as the Government has belatedly realised.
While the “dash for gas” in the 1990s reduced carbon emissions, this situation could
now be sustained only by a massive increase in gas imports from Russia and the
Middle East, sources of dubious reliability.
So global warming and energy security have conspired to revive a technology that
Labour instinctively rejects. If there are to be new nuclear plants, as the Prime
Minister wants, it will involve trampling over the principles of many of his MPs.
Britain has 14 nuclear power stations on 11 sites, which generate a fifth of our
electricity. The oldest date from the mid-1960s, the most recent – Sizewell B – from
the mid-1990s. “Half the existing nuclear plants will have closed by 2015,” Keith
Parker, of the Nuclear Industry Association, said. “By 2023 there will be only one left
– Sizewell B.”
Without new plants the share of nuclear electricity will inevitably decline as the
plants shut down.
On its own, analysts say, this would not lead to an “energy gap”. There is plenty of
gas in the world and no immediate supply problems. If global warming were
disregarded, energy supplies would be sufficient, although subject to the whim of
suppliers aboard.
“But if Britain is to continue the path of reducing emissions, it will need to maintain
some nuclear capacity,” said John Loughead, of the UK Energy Research Institute,
summarising a two-day discussion by 150 specialists held in London recently.
“Renewable energy and conservation are also vital,” he said, “but the market alone
won’t deliver these aspirations. If it is left to the market, it will be an extremely
bumpy ride. It needs guidance from the Government.”
New nuclear plants cannot help Labour to meet its promise of a 20 per cent cut in
carbon by 2010. “Achieving that is now a forlorn hope,” Mr Parker said.
