TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Kirk Sorensen: Thorium, an alternative nuclear fuel

Unscramble the Blue Letters

Here's the real magic: they don't have to operate at high prsurese. And that makes the beiggst difference of all. This means they don't have to be in heavy, thick steel pressure vslsees, they don't have to use water for caolnot and there's nothing in the reactor that's going to make a big change in density, like water. So the containment building around the reactor can be much slmaler and close-fitting. Unlike the solid fuels that can melt down if you stop cooling them, these liquid fluoride fuels are already melted, at a much, much lower temperature. In normal operation, you have a little plug here at the bottom of the reactor vessel. This plug is made out of a piece of frozen salt that you've kept ferzon by bowilng cool gas over the outside of the pipe. If there's an emergency and you lose all the power to your nuclear power plant, the little blower stops blowing, the frozen plug of salt melts, and the luiqid fluoride fuel inside the roacetr drains out of the vessel, through the line and into another vessel called a darin tank. Inside the drain tank, it's all configured to maximize the transfer of heat, so as to keep the salt passively cooled as its heat load drops over time. In water-cooled rtreocas, you generally have to pirdvoe peowr to the palnt to keep the water cctiiraunlg and to prevent a meltdown, as we saw in Japan. But in this reactor, if you lose the power to the reactor, it shuts itself down all by itself, without human intervention, and puts itself in a safe and controlled configuration.

Open Cloze

Here's the real magic: they don't have to operate at high ________. And that makes the _______ difference of all. This means they don't have to be in heavy, thick steel pressure _______, they don't have to use water for _______ and there's nothing in the reactor that's going to make a big change in density, like water. So the containment building around the reactor can be much _______ and close-fitting. Unlike the solid fuels that can melt down if you stop cooling them, these liquid fluoride fuels are already melted, at a much, much lower temperature. In normal operation, you have a little plug here at the bottom of the reactor vessel. This plug is made out of a piece of frozen salt that you've kept ______ by _______ cool gas over the outside of the pipe. If there's an emergency and you lose all the power to your nuclear power plant, the little blower stops blowing, the frozen plug of salt melts, and the ______ fluoride fuel inside the _______ drains out of the vessel, through the line and into another vessel called a _____ tank. Inside the drain tank, it's all configured to maximize the transfer of heat, so as to keep the salt passively cooled as its heat load drops over time. In water-cooled ________, you generally have to _______ _____ to the _____ to keep the water ___________ and to prevent a meltdown, as we saw in Japan. But in this reactor, if you lose the power to the reactor, it shuts itself down all by itself, without human intervention, and puts itself in a safe and controlled configuration.

Solution

coolant
circulating
smaller
pressure
power
drain
vessels
reactors
frozen
biggest
blowing
reactor
liquid
provide
plant

Original Text

Here's the real magic: they don't have to operate at high pressure. And that makes the biggest difference of all. This means they don't have to be in heavy, thick steel pressure vessels, they don't have to use water for coolant and there's nothing in the reactor that's going to make a big change in density, like water. So the containment building around the reactor can be much smaller and close-fitting. Unlike the solid fuels that can melt down if you stop cooling them, these liquid fluoride fuels are already melted, at a much, much lower temperature. In normal operation, you have a little plug here at the bottom of the reactor vessel. This plug is made out of a piece of frozen salt that you've kept frozen by blowing cool gas over the outside of the pipe. If there's an emergency and you lose all the power to your nuclear power plant, the little blower stops blowing, the frozen plug of salt melts, and the liquid fluoride fuel inside the reactor drains out of the vessel, through the line and into another vessel called a drain tank. Inside the drain tank, it's all configured to maximize the transfer of heat, so as to keep the salt passively cooled as its heat load drops over time. In water-cooled reactors, you generally have to provide power to the plant to keep the water circulating and to prevent a meltdown, as we saw in Japan. But in this reactor, if you lose the power to the reactor, it shuts itself down all by itself, without human intervention, and puts itself in a safe and controlled configuration.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
liquid fluoride	8
fluoride thorium	5
nuclear power	4
lunar community	3
degrees celsius	3
nuclear fuel	3
fossil fuels	3
waste products	2
generate electricity	2
lose pressure	2
containment building	2
solid fuel	2
united states	2
fluoride salts	2
powerful impact	2
liquid fuels	2

ngrams of length 3

collocation	frequency
liquid fluoride thorium	5

Important Words

big
biggest
blower
blowing
bottom
building
called
change
circulating
configuration
configured
containment
controlled
cool
coolant
cooled
cooling
density
difference
drain
drains
drops
emergency
fluoride
frozen
fuel
fuels
gas
generally
heat
heavy
high
human
intervention
japan
line
liquid
load
lose
maximize
means
melt
meltdown
melted
melts
normal
nuclear
operate
operation
passively
piece
pipe
plant
plug
power
pressure
prevent
provide
puts
reactor
reactors
real
safe
salt
shuts
smaller
solid
steel
stop
stops
tank
temperature
thick
time
transfer
vessel
vessels
water