Shadowing Practice: 3 Reasons Why Nuclear Energy Is Terrible! 2/3 - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Three reasons why we should stop using nuclear energy.
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1. Nuclear Weapons Proliferation Nuclear technology made a violent entrance onto the world stage.
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Just one year after the world's first ever nuclear test explosion in 1944, two large cities were destroyed by just two single bombs.
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After that, reactor technology slowly evolved as a means of generating electricity, but it's always been intimately connected with nuclear weapons technology.
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It's nearly impossible to develop nuclear weapons without access to reactor technology.
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In fact, the Nuclear Non -Proliferation Treaty serves the purpose of spreading nuclear reactor technology without spreading nuclear weapons with limited success.
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In 40 years, five countries have developed their own weapons with the help of reactor technology.
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The fact of the matter is
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that it can be very hard to distinguish a covert nuclear weapons program from the peaceful use of nuclear energy.
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In the 1970s, the big nuclear powers were happily selling peaceful technology to smaller countries, which then developed weapons of their own.
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The road to deadly nuclear weapons is always paved with peaceful reactors.
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2. Nuclear waste and pollution Spent nuclear fuel is not only radioactive,
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but also contains extremely poisonous chemical elements like plutonium.
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It loses its harmfulness only slowly over several tens of thousands of years.
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And there is also a process called reprocessing, which means the extraction of plutonium from spent nuclear fuel.
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It can be used for two purposes, to build nuclear weapons or to use it as new fuel.
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But hardly any of it is used as fuel because we don't have the right kind of reactors for that.
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A milligram will kill you, a few kilograms make an atomic bomb, and even an inconspicuous country like Germany literally has tons of the stuff just lying around
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because reprocessing sounded like a good idea decades ago.
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And where will all the waste go?
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After dumping it into the ocean was forbidden, we've tried to bury it, but we can't find a place where it will definitely stay secure for tens of thousands of years.
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Over 30 countries operate nearly 400 reactors managing several hundred thousands of tons of nuclear waste
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and only one is currently serious about opening a permanent civilian waste storage, tiny Finland.
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3. Accidents and Disasters Over 60 years of nuclear power usage,
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there have been seven major accidents in reactors or facilities dealing with nuclear waste.
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Three of those were mostly contained, but four of them released significant amounts of radioactivity into the environment.
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In 1957, 1987 and 2011, large areas of land in Russia,
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Ukraine and Japan were rendered unfit for human habitation for decades to come.
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The number of deaths is highly disputed but probably lies in the thousands.
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These disasters happened with nuclear reactors of very different types in very different countries and several decades apart.
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Looking at the numbers, we may as well ask ourselves, are 10 % of the world's energy supply worth a devastating disaster every 30 years?
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Would 30 % be worth another Fukushima or Chernobyl somewhere on Earth every 10 years?
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What area would have to be contaminated so we say no more?
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Where is the line?
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So, should we use nuclear energy?
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The risks may outweigh the benefits and maybe we should stop looking into this direction and drop this technology for good.
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If you want to hear the other side of the argument or a short introduction to nuclear energy, click here.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 37 sentences and 558 words to shadow. The speech runs for 3:35. The speaker talks at a natural 155 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| reactor noun | /ɹiˈæktɚ/ | A person who responds to a suggestion, stimulation or other influence. |
| disaster noun | /dɪˈzɑːs.təː/ | An unexpected natural or man-made catastrophe of substantial extent causing significant physical damage or destruction, loss of life or sometimes permanent… |
| ton noun | /tʌn/ | The short ton of 2000 pounds (about 907 kg), 20 hundredweights of 100 pounds avoirdupois each. |
| element noun | /ˈɛləmənt/ | One of the simplest or essential parts or principles of which anything consists, or upon which the constitution or fundamental powers of anything are based. |
| violent adjective | /ˈvaɪ.ə.lənt/ | Involving extreme force or motion. |
| electricity noun | /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/ | Originally, a property of amber and certain other nonconducting substances to attract lightweight material when rubbed, or the cause of this property; now… |
| entrance noun | /ˈɛn.tɹəns/ | The action of entering, or going in. |
| connect verb | /kəˈnɛkt/ | To join (to another object): to attach, or to be intended to attach or capable of attaching, to another object. |
| dispute noun | /dɪˈspjuːt/ | An argument or disagreement; a failure to agree. |
| civilian noun | /sɪˈvɪl.jən/ | A person following the pursuits of civil life, especially one who is not an active member of the armed forces. |
| usage noun | /ˈjuːsɪd͡ʒ/ | A custom or established practice. |
| explosion noun | /ɛkˈsploʊ.ʒən/ | A violent release of energy (sometimes mechanical, nuclear, or chemical); an act or instance of exploding. |
| generate verb | /ˈd͡ʒɛn.ə.ɹeɪt/ | To bring into being; give rise to. |
| pollution noun | /pəˈluʃən/ | Physical contamination, now especially the contamination of the environment by harmful substances, or by disruptive levels of noise, light etc. |
| deadly adjective | /ˈdɛdli/ | Causing death; lethal. |
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | were destroyed · is always paved · was forbidden |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | it's always been · have developed · we've tried |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 3 contractions and reduced forms, such as can't, don't, we've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: explosion /ɛkˈsploʊ.ʒən/, pollution /pəˈluʃən/, distinguish /dɪˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃ/, extraction /ɪkˈstɹækʃən/, habitation /ˌhæb.ɪˈteɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: electricity /ɪˌlɛkˈtɹɪsɪti/, radioactive /ˌɹeɪdioʊˈæktɪv/, contaminate /kənˈtæmɪneɪt/, habitation /ˌhæb.ɪˈteɪ.ʃən/, inconspicuous /ˌɪn.kənˈspɪk.ju.əs/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like reactor, disaster, ton.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.