Learn Vocabulary from Newspaper Articles (ECONOMICS TIME)

Economies of Scale in Nuclear Power

The Cabinet’s green signal to rev up India’s nuclear power capacity needs to be followed through with concrete plans to rationalise costs and reap scale economies in plant execution. The government has approved the setting up of 10 nuclear power stations of 700 MW each, using indigenously developed pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs). They would be the biggest such plants, as most of our PHWRs have been smaller, of 220 MW capacity, and the two units of 540 MW each at Tarapur were commissioned over a decade ago.
The larger plant size should step up efficiency in generation. But more needs to be done: innovative design, standardised equipment and strict timelines for construction. It should be possible to curb project expenses with speedy execution. Project delays can make nuclear plants well-nigh unviable. Sourcing and managing component costs would be key. We need to purposefully reduce plant erection and commissioning periods so as to rein in capital and interest costs during construction, while upholding safety and reliability parameters. There is also the need to leverage international experience to step up efficiency in project implementation, operations and possible expansion.

We need to aim at fully commissioning modern modular nuclear power plants within four or five years of the first pour of concrete. It would keep the attendant price of power competitive, and also augment indigenous capacity to undertake nuclear commerce internationally. Concurrently, a larger nuclear power generation capacity and consequent increased baseload installation calls for a revamped power tariff policy. The Centre needs to call for time-of-day tariffs nationally and digital metering, as power demand during the hours of peak load is expected to steadily rise. 


IMPORTANT WORDS FROM ARTICLE & THEIR MEANING

1) Concrete (ठोस) - Con-cre-te
Meaning - existing in a material or physical form, not abstract - Adjective
a building material made from a mixture of broken stone or gravel, sand, cement, and water, which can be spread or poured into moulds and forms a stone-like mass on hardening - Noun
cover (an area) with concrete - Verb
Synonyms - solid, material
Antonyms - general, indefinite
Example - They presented concrete proposals for improvement.

2) Execution (क्रियान्वयन) - Exe-cu-tion
Meaning - the carrying out of a plan, order, or course of action - Noun
Synonyms - implementation, performance
Antonyms - disregard, failure
Example - Many people believe that execution has no place in the penal system of a civilized society.

3) Indigenous (देश में ही) - In-di-gen-ous
Meaning - originating in and characteristic of a particular region or country, native (often followed by to) - Adjective
Synonyms - domestic, primitive
Antonyms - alien, foreign
Example - Kangaroos are indigenous to Australia.

4) Erection (निर्माण) - Erec-tion
Meaning - the action of erecting a structure or object - Noun
Synonyms - construction, building
Example - The erection of the new hospital took several years.

5) Rein (लगाम) - Re-in
Meaning - a long, narrow strap attached at one end to a horse's bit, typically used in pairs to guide or check a horse in riding or driving - Noun
check or guide (a horse) by pulling on its reins - Verb
Synonyms - curb, bit
Antonyms - release
Example - My father always kept us on a tight rein.

6) Augment (बढ़ाना) - Aug-ment
Meaning - make (something) greater by adding to it, increase - Verb
a vowel prefixed to past tenses of verbs in Greek and certain other Indo-European languages - Noun
Synonyms - amplify, boost
Antonyms - abridge, compress
Example - While searching for a way to augment the family income, she began making dolls.

7) Revamped (पुर्नोत्थान) - Ri-vamp-ed
Meaning - give new and improved form, structure, or appearance to - Verb
Synonyms - clean, overhaul
Antonyms - break, damage
Example - They have revamped their foreign policy.

8) Boon (वरदान) - Bu-n

Meaning - a thing that is helpful or beneficial - Noun
Synonyms - blessing, windfall
Antonyms - forfeit, hindrance
Example (English) - A place where we could get food such as you served yesterday would be a boon to us.
Example (Hindi) - ऐसी जगह जहां हमें जैसा आपने कल परोसा था वैसा खाना मिल जाए तो वह हमारे लिए एक वरदान होगी।

Now considering the article above as a Reading Comprehension question, try to answer the following -
  • Isn’t that why we need to control population growth?
  • Even if we produce energy with minimal pollution, won’t more energy use incur a greater, more devastating environmental impact?
Given below are some words to check your vocabulary you can make sentences with those words in the comment section which will be reviewed by us.
  • Innovative
  • Efficiency
  • Equipment
  • Reliability

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