美全面评估核电厂安全

U.S. nuclear officials say exhaustive reviews of safety standards and procedures have been conducted at American reactors since the Japanese nuclear crisis stemming from a March earthquake and tsunami. That's what leaders of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sought to reassure wary lawmakers Thursday at a senate hearing.

美国的核能官员表示，自从今年三月日本大地震和海啸引起日本核危机后，美国对核电厂的安全标准和操作程序作出了详尽评估。美国核能管制委员会官员星期四在听证会上，对关切这个问题的国会议员再度做出保证。

One hundred and four nuclear power reactors currently operate in the United States, providing roughly 20 percent of the nation’s electricity. It has been more than three decades since the United States suffered a major nuclear scare - the 1979 partial core meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, which resulted in no deaths or injuries.

美国目前有104座核反应堆在运转，供应美国大约百分之二十的电力需求。自1979年发生宾州三哩岛核事故以来，已经有三十多年了。三哩岛核事故造成部分炉心融毁，但是没有引起伤亡。

But recent events in Japan have refocused attention on nuclear safety and accident preparedness in the United States. Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey summed up the concerns of many lawmakers:

日本最近的核事故再度引起人们关切美国的核安全以及对事故的准备。来自新泽西州的民主党籍参议员劳敦伯格发出了许多议员的共同心声。劳敦伯格说：

“Since Japan’s nuclear disaster began unfolding, Americans have asked, with a good deal of trepidation: could it happen here? Nothing can be taken for granted where nuclear power is concerned," said Lautenberg. "Japan, a world leader in technology, believed the Fukushima plant was strong enough to withstand a worst-case scenario. And now we know it was not.”

他说：“日本发生核灾难后，美国人民深感不安，不禁要问：这种事会不会发生在这里？在核能运转的地方，没有任何事应该被视为是理所当然。日本，这个技术领先全球的国家，当初也认为福岛核电厂足以抵挡最坏的情况。而现在，我们都知道，实际并不是这样。”

All five commissioners of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission were on hand to answer senators’ questions. Chairman Gregory Jaczko detailed the commission’s actions since the Japanese crisis began.

核能管制委员会的五名委员全部列席这次听证会，回答参议员们的提问。核能管制委员会主席杰兹科详细叙述了自日本核危机开始后，该委员会所采取的行动。

“We issued instructions to our inspectors calling for immediate, independent assessments of each plant’s level of preparedness. The instructions covered extensive damage mitigation guidelines, station blackout, flooding, and seismic issues, as well as severe accident management guidelines,” he said.

杰兹科说：“我们给我们的检查人员下达指示，要他们对每一座核电厂的防灾准备，立即做出独立的评估。评估的范围包括广泛的减少损害指导准则，核电厂停电，淹水，还有大地震，以及严重事故的管理指导守则。”

Last month, the NRC reported that potential safety issues had been detected at 12 nuclear facilities.

上个月，核能管制委员会报告说，在美国的12处核设施里，检查出具有潜在的安全问题。

The chairwoman of the Senate Committee on the Environment, Barbara Boxer, seemed troubled by problems discovered at a nuclear site in her home state of California.

参议院环境委员会主席鲍克瑟女士，似乎对她的家乡州--加利福尼亚州一座核电厂被检查出有问题而感到困扰。

“NRC’s inspections at the Diablo Canyon power plant [in California] found that state highways and access roads needed to reach diesel fuel and an alternative seawater source for cooling may be inaccessible after an earthquake," said Boxer. "And hoses needed to get cooling water from the reservoir to the plant were blocked by a security fence.”

鲍瑟尔参议员说：“核能管制委员会对加州迪亚柏楼谷核电厂的检查发现，州际公路和进出道路需要能够容易接触到柴油燃料，以及在地震发生后无法取用海水作为替代冷却水。此外，从蓄水池取水喷洒降温的橡皮水管，又被安全防护篱笆给阻挡。”The NRC said such issues are being corrected.

核能管制委员会表示，这类问题已经得到改正。

The commissioners acknowledged there are lessons to be learned from the Japanese nuclear crisis. Jaczko highlighted one lesson in particular.

委员会主席杰兹科承认从日本的核危机里学到一些教训。杰兹科特别提到其中的一项教训。

“Our traditional approach has always been to assume a single incident at a single reactor," he said. "Clearly Fukushima-Daiichi showed us that we have to consider the possibility of multiple units at a single site, perhaps multiple spent fuel pools being affected at the same time.”

他说：“我们传统的作法一直是认为，在单一的反应炉发生单一的事故。但是福岛第一核电厂事故很明确地显示，我们必须考虑到在单一地点多个反应炉可能同时发生问题，可能多个冷却池水同时受到影响。”

The hearing exposed divided opinions in the Senate on the wisdom and utility of employing nuclear power in the United States. Republican Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee is a strong supporter.

这次听证会也曝露了参议员们对美国使用核能到底是否正确的分歧，来自田纳西州的共和党参议员亚力山大是核能发电的强烈支持者。

“The subject in America today is jobs. We want jobs (and) we have got to have large amounts of reliable, low-cost electricity," said Alexander. "Seventy percent of our carbon-free, sulfur-free, nitrogen-free, mercury-free electricity comes from nuclear plants.”

亚力山大参议员说：“这件事在今日的美国来说是工作问题。我们需要工作，同时我们也必须得到大量可靠而且低成本的电力。我们所有不排放二氧化碳，不排放硫化物，不排放氮，不排放铅的电力，其中有百分之是七十来自核能发电。”

Democratic Senator Jeff Merkeley of Oregon is far less enthusiastic.

但是，来自奥勒冈州的民主党籍参议员莫克里却对核能发电不以为然。

“I have a lot of doubts about nuclear power being able to be competitive, taking into account costs, potential terror threats, natural disasters, and human error," he said. "But I also think it is very important to look at all options as we wrestle with ways to generate non-carbon power.”

莫克里参议员说：“如果计算进建造成本，潜在的恐怖威胁，天然灾害和人为过失，我非常怀疑核电厂具有竞争力。所以，当我们致力寻求办法去生产不排碳的发电厂之际，我认为很重要的是考虑到所有的选择。”

A political battle has raged for years over what to do with America’s spent nuclear fuel. A site in sparsely-populated Nevada was designated as a nuclear repository in the 1980s. Billions of dollars have been spent to develop the Yucca Mountain repository, but under President Barack Obama the project has been mothballed, with no replacement site identified to date.

至于如何处理美国的核废料，多年来已经成为美国的政治争论议题。在上个世纪80年代，内华达州一处人烟稀少的地区被指定作为核废料的贮存地点。为了修建这个犹加山核废料贮存库，已经花费了数十亿美元，但是在奥巴马总统主政下，这项计划又遭到冻结。到目前为止，还没有选出其他取代的地点。