Read the following text and decide which answer best fits each space. For questions 26-45, mark one letter A, B, C or D on your Answer Sheet. Nuclear Age The Oyster Creek nuclear plant in New Jersey opened when the Beatles were still together, and since 1969 its single 645-MW boiling-water reactor has provided enough energy to power 600,000 homes annually. But the oldest nuclear plant in the U.S. will be retired a little【C1】______Last year its owner, Exelon. announced that it would【C2】______Oyster Creek in 2019, 10 years ahead of schedule. The reason: the【C3】______plant costs too much to keep running【C4】______. The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster has focused new attention on the【C5】______future of the American atomic sector. But the U.S. nuclear industry was already facing a very【C6】______problem: its aging fleet of reactors. Nuclear plants were built with 40-year licenses that can theoretically be【C7】______to 60 or even 80 years. Half the country’s 104 reactors are more than 30 years old and【C8】______middle age. So far, 62 plants have been【C9】______20-year extensions, and 20 more have applications pending.【C10】______like the one in Fukushima, the oldest plants in the U.S.【C11】______to have fewer safety measures. If regulators crack down, operators could【C12】______-as Exelon did with Oyster Creek—that upgrading is not worth the【C13】______and shut down the plants If no new nuclear plants are built to【C14】______them, nuclear could fade into obsolescence. Ironically, that could have【C15】______environmental effects. A report by the Breakthrough Institute, an energy think tank, found that replacing all U.S. nuclear【C16】______a mix of coal and gas would raise carbon【C17】______9% by 2030. "We need to understand that there would be【C18】______to pulling back on nuclear," says Michael Levi, a senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations.【C19】______a great athlete, nuclear power may be【C20】______after it retires.【C12】