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【中文标题】辐射暴露恐会削减“福岛勇士们”的努力
【原文标题】Radiation Exposure Could Curtail Workers’ Efforts
【登载媒体】纽约时报
【来源地址】http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/1 ... ner=rss&emc=rss
【翻译方式】人工
【声明】本翻译供 Anti-CNN使用，未经AC或译者许可，不得转载。
【原文库链接】http://bbs.m4.cn/thread-308315-1-1.html
As radiation levels rise at the crippled reactors in northern Japan, a basic question arises: how long can workers keep struggling to ward off full meltdowns?
随着日本北部受损核反应堆辐射程度的不断升级，一个根本问题出现了：工人们为防止堆芯熔毁所做的努力还能维持多久？
The workers are performing what have been described as heroic tasks, like using fire equipment to pump seawater into the three failing reactors to keep the nuclear fuel from melting down and fighting the fire at a fourth reactor.
工人们现在正在做的是被人们视为英雄般的任务，他们利用消防设备抽取海水灌入三个核反应堆，防止核燃料的堆芯熔毁，同时还在与第四个反应堆的大火作斗争。
They are operating in places that have been contaminated by radioactive isotopes from all four reactors. Technicians who have not been evacuated face an escalating exposure, and will have to be replaced if the fight is to go on.
他们战斗在那些被来自四个反应堆的放射性同位素所污染的地方。尚未撤离的技术人员面临着逐步升级的辐射暴露，如果这场战斗还要继续，他们不得不进行人员轮替作业。
“If they exceed a certain amount, they can’t go back in for a day or a week or longer,” said Dr. Lew Pepper, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health who has studied the effects of radiation on nuclear weapons workers. And the pool of available replacements is finite, he said: “What do you do? You don’t have a lot of people who can do this work.”
美国波士顿大学公共健康学院的教授刘派普博士曾研究过辐射对核武器工人的身体影响，他表示，“如果这些工人（承受的核辐射暴露）超过一定量的时候，他们可能在一天或一周甚至更长时间内无法回去。”而可随时替换上阵的人手是有限的，他说，“你该怎么办？你没有足够的人手来做这项工作。”
The nuclear plants’ operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company, has declined to provide details about the workers — who they are, how many there are and how they are being assigned to do the most hazardous work.
福岛第一核电站的运营商东京电力公司拒绝提供这些工人的相关资料细节，包括他们的身份、人数以及如何被分配到这项高危工作的。
But Arnold Gundersen, a consultant who worked in American plants nearly identical to the stricken Japanese ones, said it was likely that the company was calling in retirees and workers from unaffected plants for help. And perhaps for sacrifice, as well. “They may also be asking for people to volunteer to receive additional exposure,” he said.
不过阿诺德•甘德森，这位曾亲历美国三里岛核泄漏事故的美国核专家顾问表示，该公司很可能是召回了一些退休职工和未受影响工厂的员工来支援的，并很可能也是过来牺牲的。“他们也可能是号召人们充当志愿者来承受这些超标的辐射暴露。”
People who are working close to the reactor — pumping water, or operating valves inside the secondary containment structure — would almost certainly be wearing full bodysuits and air packs, Mr. Gundersen said. But some forms of radiation can penetrate any gear.
甘德森先生认为，那些接近反应堆工作的工人们（抽海水或者操控次要反应堆外壳内部的阀门）几乎是全副武装，穿上全套防护服，带着空气包。但是某些形式的辐射却能穿透任何设备。
Gamma rays and other penetrating radiation can cause cancers and other long-term illnesses or, in high amounts, near-term illness or death.
伽马射线和其他穿透性的辐射可能引发癌症或其他长期性疾病，如果辐射程度高的话，则会导致短期疾病甚至死亡。
Health physicists should gauge the radiation level in the work area, and the workers would normally be told how long they can remain. “There may be a health physicist who will say, You only have an hour or two to do this job,” Mr. Gundersen said. Each worker would carry a dosimeter, which measures radiation exposure, “and they’ll be looking at it,” he added. “When it hits a certain number, they should leave.”
健康物理学家应当测量工作环境的辐射强度，而这些工人们通常会被告知他们所能坚持的时间。甘德森先生说，“会有一位健康物理学家告知，你只能有一个或两个小时来进行作业。”每个工人需配备一台放射性测量仪，以便测量辐射暴露程度，他补充说，“工人们要随时注意这个数值，当它到达一个特定数值时，必须离开。”
Suits and air packs are meant to keep radioactive particles off the skin and out of the lungs until the workers return to a safer area.
防护服和空气包的作用是要防止那些放射性微粒沾染上人们的皮肤，同时防止被吸入肺内，直到工人们返回至安全一点的地方。
Workers are trained to remove the gear in a specific way to avoid leaving any particles on their skin that would result in continuing exposure.
工人们都被训练如何用一种特殊方式脱下这些设备，以免这些微粒被留在皮肤上导致持续性的辐射暴露。
While regulations may differ somewhat in Japan, in the United States the usual radiation exposure limit for nuclear power plant workers is 50 millisieverts, or 5 rem, per year (compared with the 0.3 rem that the Environmental Protection Agency says most people get from normal background radiation). When there is an emergency, the limit can be raised to 25 rem, which is still far below the level at which people would show symptoms or get sick.
在辐射暴露的规定上面，美日之间可能有所不同，美国的核电厂工人的日常辐射暴露限度是每年50毫希，或者5雷姆（对比美国环境保护局规定的大多数人从背景辐射中所能接受的值为0.3雷姆）。若有紧急情况，这一限度可被提升至25雷姆，不过这一数值仍远远低于人们可能会显现核辐射症状或者生病的程度。
The explosion at Fukushima’s Reactor No. 2 on Tuesday morning sent radiation levels spiking, to 8,217 microsieverts an hour from 1,941 about 40 minutes earlier.
福岛核电站第二号反应堆在周二发生的爆炸使辐射等级数达到了一个峰值，从40分钟前的每小时1941微希上升至8217微希。
During the Chernobyl accident in Ukraine in 1986, when the reactor caught fire, operators and firefighters received high doses of radiation, sometimes within minutes and without being made aware of the dangers. More than two dozen of them died of acute radiation illness. “People in Chernobyl were just over overexposed,” Dr. Pepper said. “The outcome for those folks was death.”
1986年发生在乌克兰的切尔诺贝利事故中，当时的反应堆着火，技术人员和消防员有时候仅在数分钟内便在毫不知险情的状况下承受了高剂量的辐射。超过24人死于急性辐射疾病。“切尔诺贝利的人们当时正是受到过度的辐射暴露。” 派普博士说，“那些当地人的后果就是死亡。”
Determining allowable exposure is usually based on three principles: distance, time and shielding. In the Japanese plants, extensive contamination would mean that distance and shielding are not really factors, so the controlling variable is time.
制定可承受的暴露数值通常是基于以下三个原则：距离、时间和掩体。在日本的电厂里，大量的核污染就意味着距离和掩体不是真正的因素，所以现在所能掌控的变量就是时间。
Mr. Gundersen said that when he worked at the Vermont Yankee plant, which is nearly identical to some of the crippled Japanese reactors, he had one maintenance task where the “stay time,” in which workers would be exposed to their yearly limit, was three minutes. He hired local farmers, trained them on a mock-up for two weeks, and then sent them in for their brief stint. “Then I’d send them home for a year,” he said.
甘德森先生说，他曾在美国的佛蒙特州扬基核电站工作，这家核电站也曾发生过类似日本此次反应堆损坏的泄漏事件，他当时有一个维修任务，每次在里面的“停留时间”只有3分钟，因为在这里工作的工人要承受一般工人一年的核暴露数值。他雇用了当地的农民，训练他们在模型上操作了两周，然后再把他们派到电厂里做这些限定工作。“接着我会把他们送回家休息一年的时间。”他说。
In Japan, the plant operators do not have the luxury of time for training. “You need somebody who is familiar with the plant, because you need somebody to do it now,” Mr. Gundersen said.
在日本，福岛核电站的技术人员已经没有多余的时间来训练。“你需要派送一些熟悉电厂的人去，因为你要马上有人去做这些事。” 甘德森先生说。
Japanese workers might be so committed that they might be willing to exceed accepted levels of exposure. But that might not extend to extremely high radiation.
日本的这些工人们或许是怀着无比的献身精神，才能愿意舍身承受这些过量核辐射暴露。但是那样做或许可以阻止这些极高的辐射蔓延。
“I don’t think anyone is going to take 50 rems,” he said. “But if it’s a difference between 5 and 7, they might say: ‘I’ll take it. It’s worth the risk.’ ”、
“我不认为任何人可以承受50雷姆的量。”他说，“不过如果这是5和7之间的不同，他们或者会说，‘就让我来承受吧。这个冒险是值得的。’”
小贴士时间：
看新闻的时候经常碰到一个新的陌生计量单位，希、毫希、微希，甚是云里雾里，在翻译的时候又一次撞上了这几个新名词，干脆去网上扫盲了一下，找到这么一段，正好给大家一起扫盲吧~呵呵~
核辐射强度及危害示意图在放射医学和人体辐射防护中，辐射当量剂量的国际标准单位是希沃特，记做Sv。
定义是每公斤（千克、kg）人体组织吸收1焦耳（J）射线能量，为1希沃特。
希沃特是个非常大的单位，因此通常使用毫（milli,千分之一）希沃特（mSv），1mSv=0.001Sv。
此外还有微（micro，千分之一乘以千分之一，即百万分之一）希沃特（μSv），1μSv=0.001mSv。
请注意，目前国内很多报道将外文报道的micro（微希）理解和缩写成mSv（毫希）是错误的，如此把单位放大1000倍，无端加剧了恐慌。
东京电力公司说，在地时间上午8时31分（格林威治时间2331）的辐射指数，已从40分钟前每小时1941微西弗（microsieverts）上升到8217微西弗。
日本有关单位表示，辐射量要达100万微西弗左右，才会引发大规模辐射中毒。
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