经济学人下载:应对日本核灾难,与辐射共生

Coping with Japan's nuclear disaster
应对日本核灾难

Living with radiation
与辐射共生

A spreading cloud of economic and human costs
经济和民众开销忧虑蔓延开来

Giving the brassicas a once-over
测量青花菜的辐射量

A PEN-LIKE dosimeter hangs around the neck of Katsunobu Sakurai, the tireless mayor of Minamisoma, measuring the accumulated radiation to which he has been exposed during the past two weeks of a four-week nuclear nightmare. The reading of 43 microsieverts is about the dosage he would get from a single chest x-ray. No cause for alarm, then. Yet he believes the radioactive particles from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear-power plant, 25km from his office, have led this once-prosperous city of 70,000 into a fight for its life.

形似钢笔的放射量测量器戴在樱井胜延的脖子上，这位不知疲倦的南相马市市长正在测量他在过去两周中吸收的累积辐射量，而核噩梦已经持续四个周了。测量器显示的43毫西弗大约是他做一次胸透所接收的辐射量，这完全无害。然而，樱井市长相信：从距离自己办公室25千米外的福岛第一核电站飘来的放射性粒子，已经导致居住在这座曾经繁荣的城市的70,000市民不得不为生存而战。

About 50,000 inhabitants who lived closest to the plant have been evacuated or have fled since radiation levels started to rise after the March 11th tsunami—which also left at least 1,400 of the town’s residents dead or missing. Even though external radiation has since returned to near-harmless levels, Mr Sakurai fears many of Minamisoma’s evacuees may never come back.

3月11日发生海啸之后，辐射水平开始上升，居住在核电站附近的50,000名居民已经被疏散或者是逃离了住所，这场海啸至少造成镇上1,400名居民死亡或者失踪。尽管在此之后外部辐射回到了几乎无害的水平，樱井市长还是担心一些从南相马市疏散的居民可能不会再回到市里。

Three worries predominate. One, the information passed out by the government and Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), which owns the Dai-ichi plant, may be unreliable. Two, the plant is still unstable, at risk of suddenly emitting vastly greater amounts of radioactive particles. Three, the longer it takes to stabilise, the more lasting damage wind- and waterborne radiation may do to the livelihoods of the farmers and fishermen who are the economic lifeblood of the community. If they go, so does the town.

人们主要有三个顾虑。第一，政府和拥有第一核电站的东京电力公司（TEPCO）放出的信息可能不可靠。第二，核电站还是处于不稳定的状态，存在着突然释放大量放射性粒子的风险。第三，用于稳定核电站的时间越长，所产生持续的伤害存在的时间也就越长，同样的，水性辐射可能影响到农民和渔民的营生，他们可是这个城市的经济命脉。如果他们离开了，那么镇子也就完了。

These worries resurfaced on April 7th when TEPCO started to inject nitrogen into one of the plant’s six stricken reactors. That was to prevent a repeat of the hydrogen explosions that blew radiation out of the plant soon after cooling systems failed in the wake of the tsunami.

4月7日，东京电力公司（TEPCO）开始向核电站中六个损坏的反应堆的其中之一注入氮气，这令那些忧虑开始重新浮出水面。海啸发生之后冷却系统失效导致了氢气爆炸，这把放射物吹出了核电站，注入氮气的行为就是为了防止这一悲剧再次发生。

Even before that news, Mr Sakurai was saying that he was fearful of another explosion. It was why he continued to discourage hope that the town could get back to normal. “The lack of information is making people deeply stressed and frustrated,” he said.

即便在这消息发布之前，樱井市长就在说他害怕再次发生爆炸。这就是他一直不相信南相马市能恢复原样的原因。他说：“信息的缺乏让人们感到巨大的压力和沮丧。”