日本核污染水或于24日开始排海

据日本媒体报道，日本东京电力公司计划在8月24日正式开始将福岛第一核电站的核污染水排入太平洋。不过报道指出，如果出现恶劣气象条件，将推迟排放计划。

🤔️小作业：

1. Which statement best captures the Japanese government's stance on the water release from the Fukushima plant?

a. It's an action that they were compelled to take due to international pressure.

b. It's a necessary phase in the long process of safely decommissioning the plant.

c. They believe it's the most economical solution available.

d. They expect the release to resolve all environmental concerns within a decade.

a. It's negligible because of the vastness of the Pacific Ocean.

b. It will significantly raise radiation levels in the ocean.

c. The water should first be treated before being released.

d. The release is equivalent to global nuclear plants' regular discharge.

无注释原文：

Fukushima nuclear disaster: Japan to release treated water in 48 hours

From: BBC

Japan will start releasing treated radioactive water from the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, despite opposition from its neighbours.

The decision comes weeks after the UN's nuclear watchdog approved the plan.

Some 1.34 million tonnes of water - enough to fill 500 Olympic-size pools - have accumulated since the 2011 tsunami destroyed the plant.

The water will be released over 30 years after being filtered and diluted.

Authorities will request for the plant's operator to "promptly prepare" for the disposal to start on 24 August if weather and sea conditions are appropriate, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday after a Cabinet meeting.

Mr Kishida had visited the plant on Sunday, prompting speculation the release was imminent.

The government has said that releasing the water is a necessary step in the lengthy and costly process of decommissioning the plant, which sits on the country's east coast, about 220km (137 miles) north-east of the capital Tokyo.

Japan has been collecting and storing the contaminated water in tanks for more than a decade, but space is running out.

In 2011, a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake flooded three reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The event is regarded as the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Shortly after, authorities set up an exclusion zone which continued to be expanded as radiation leaked from the plant, forcing more than 150,000 people to evacuate from the area.

The plan to release water from the plant has caused alarm across Asia and the Pacific since it was approved by the Japanese government two years ago.

It was signed off by the UN's nuclear watchdog in July, with authorities concluding the impact on people and the environment would be negligible.

But many people, including fishermen in the region, fear that discharging the treated water will affect their livelihoods.

A crowd of protesters in Tokyo on Tuesday also staged a rally outside the prime minister's official residence, urging the government to stop the release.

Plant operators Tepco have been filtering the water to remove more than 60 radioactive substances but the water will not be entirely radiation-free as it will still contain tritium and carbon-14- radioactive isotopes of hydrogen and carbon that cannot be easily removed from water.

But experts have said they are not a danger unless consumed in large quantities, because they emit very low levels of radiation.

"As long as the discharge is carried out as planned, radiation doses to people will be vanishingly small - more than a thousand times less than doses we all get from natural radiation every year," says Prof Jim Smith, who teaches environmental science at the University of Portsmouth.

Experts also note that the contaminated water is being released into a massive body of water, the Pacific Ocean.

"Anything released from the site will therefore be massively diluted," says Prof Gerry Thomas, who teaches molecular pathology at the Imperial College London.

Tokyo has previously said the water that will be released into the Pacific Ocean, which has been mixed with seawater, has tritium and carbon 14 levels that meet safety standards.

Nuclear plants around the world regularly release waste water with tritium levels above that of the treated water from Fukushima.

But the plan has caused uproar in neighbouring countries, with China the most vocal opponent. It accused Japan of treating the ocean like its "private sewer."

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin reiterated Beijing's objection on Tuesday, adding it would take "necessary measures to safeguard the marine environment, food safety and public health".

Japan is "putting its own self-interest over the long-term well-being of all humankind" with the release of waste water, Mr Wang said.

Both South Korea and China have already banned fish imports from around Fukushima.

South Korea's government, however, has endorsed the plan, and has accused protesters of scaremongering.

- ◆ -

注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为机器翻译并非一一对应，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Fukushima nuclear disaster: Japan to release treated water in 48 hours

From: BBC

Japan will start releasing treated radioactive water from the tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, despite opposition from its neighbours.

尽管遭到邻国的反对，日本仍决定从周四起将处理后的福岛核电站放射性污水排入太平洋。

表示“放射性的”，英文解释为“Something that is radioactive contains a substance that produces energy in the form of powerful and harmful rays. ”举个🌰：The government has been storing radioactive waste at Fernald for 50 years. 该政府50年来一直在弗纳德储存放射性废物。

tsunami /tsuːˈnɑː.mi/ 表示“海啸”，英文解释为“an extremely large wave caused by a violent movement of the earth under the sea”

熟词僻义，作名词，表示“工厂；电厂”，英文解释为“A plant is a factory or a place where power is produced.”

The decision comes weeks after the UN's nuclear watchdog approved the plan.

这一决定是在联合国核监督机构批准该计划几周后作出的。

表示“（监督公司活动及监护人们权利的）监督人，监察团体；监察员；监察委员会”，英文解释为“A watchdog is a person or committee whose job is to make sure that companies do not act illegally or irresponsibly.”如：an anticrime watchdog group funded by New York businesses 一个由纽约商界资助的反犯罪监察组织。

Some 1.34 million tonnes of water - enough to fill 500 Olympic-size pools - have accumulated since the 2011 tsunami destroyed the plant.

自2011年海啸摧毁福岛核电站以来，该地已经积累了134万吨水，足以装满500座奥运会标准游泳池。

表示“积累；积聚；积攒”，英文解释为“to collect a large number of things over a long period of time”举个🌰：As people accumulate more wealth, they tend to spend a greater proportion of their incomes. 人们积累了更多财富后，他们的花费占收入的比重也往往会增加。

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述疫情期间房价上涨的文章中提到：Professionals who have carried on working from home but cut back on their spending have accumulated cash to splash. 那些改换成在家中继续工作但减少了开支的专业人士则积攒了可大笔支出的现金。

对比：

📍amass 表示“（尤指大量）积累，积聚”，英文解释为“to collect sth, especially in large quantities”举个🌰：He amassed a fortune from delivering newspapers.他靠送报纸积累了一笔财富。

📍rack up表示“大量获得（利润）；严重遭受（损失）；（体育中）多次赢得（比赛）”，英文解释为“If a business racks up profits, losses, or sales, it makes a lot of them. If a sportsman, sportswoman, or team racks up wins, they win a lot of games or races.”

The water will be released over 30 years after being filtered and diluted.

这些水在经过过滤和稀释后将在30年内逐步排放。

作动词，表示“过滤”，英文解释为“to remove solids from liquids or gases, or to remove particular types of light, using special equipment”举个🌰：The water is filtered to remove any impurities. 这种水经过滤以去除杂质。

作名词：

1）表示“筛选（过滤）程序”，英文解释为“a program that stops certain types of electronic information, email, etc. being sent to a computer.”

2）表示“滤器；过滤器”，英文解释为“a device containing paper, sand, chemicals, etc. that a liquid or gas is passed through in order to remove any materials that are not wanted”

3）此前在尴尬！视频会议忘关摄像头......文中介绍有公司主管在线会议时，误开滤镜特效，会议全程整个人变成土豆头🥔，就提到：she could not figure out how to remove the filter. 主管一直搞不清要怎么关掉滤镜。filter指的就是滤镜。

dilute /daɪˈluːt; daɪˈljuːt/ 1）表示“稀释；冲淡”，英文解释为“to make a liquid weaker by adding water or another liquid to it”举个🌰：The paint can be diluted with water to make a lighter shade. 这颜料可用水稀释以使色度淡一些。

2）表示“减缓，减轻，缓冲”，英文解释为“to reduce the strength of a feeling, action, etc.”举个🌰：These measures are designed to dilute public fears about the product's safety. 采取这些措施是为了减轻公众对该产品安全性的恐慌。

Authorities will request for the plant's operator to "promptly prepare" for the disposal to start on 24 August if weather and sea conditions are appropriate, Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Tuesday after a Cabinet meeting.

周二，日本首相岸田文雄（Fumio Kishida）在内阁会议后表示，如果天气和海况适宜，当局将要求核电站运营商“迅速准备”于8月24日开始进行排水。

promptly /ˈprɒmpt.li/ 表示“迅速地，立即地;依照预定时间地”，英文解释为“quickly, without delay, or at the arranged time”举个🌰：We'll have to leave fairly promptly (= on time) if we want to catch that train. 如果我们要赶那趟火车，就得准时出发。

disposal /dɪˈspəʊ.zəl/ 表示“清除；处理；抛弃”，英文解释为“the act of getting rid of something, especially by throwing it away”如：waste disposal 废物处理。

Mr Kishida had visited the plant on Sunday, prompting speculation the release was imminent.

岸田文雄上周日视察了该核电站，引发了有关排放即将开始的猜测。

作名词，1）表示“（计算机屏幕上的）提示符（显示计算机已经准备好接受指令）”，英文解释为“a sign on a computer screen that shows that the computer is ready to receive your instructions”

2）表示“（给演员的）提词，提白”，英文解释为“words that are spoken to an actor who has forgotten what he or she is going to say during the performance of a play”

3）作动词，表示“促使；导致；激起”，英文解释为“to make sb decide to do sth; to cause sth to happen”举个🌰：His speech prompted an angry outburst from a man in the crowd. 他的讲话激起了人群中一男子的愤怒。

📺美剧《斯巴达克斯：血与沙》（Spartacus: Blood and Sand）中的台词提到：One cannot but wonder what would prompt such an act 不知他们为何遭此不幸。

4）作动词，表示“（尤指）给（演员）提词”，英文解释为“to help someone, especially an actor, to remember what they were going to say or do”举个🌰：I forgot my line and had to be prompted. 我忘词了，只好让人提词。

speculation /ˌspek.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/  1）表示“推测；猜测；推断”，英文解释为“the act of forming opinions about what has happened or what might happen without knowing all the facts”举个🌰：There was widespread speculation that she was going to resign. 人们纷纷推测她将辞职。

2）表示“投机，投机买卖”，英文解释为“the act of speculating in order to make a profit”

表示“临近的，即将发生的”，英文解释为“coming or likely to happen very soon”，如：imminent disaster/danger 迫在眉睫的灾难/危险。

The government has said that releasing the water is a necessary step in the lengthy and costly process of decommissioning the plant, which sits on the country's east coast, about 220km (137 miles) north-east of the capital Tokyo.

日本政府表示，在长时间且高成本的核电站退役过程中，排放核污染水是必要的一步。该核电站位于日本东海岸，距首都东京约220公里（137英里）。

表示“停止使用”，英文解释为“When something such as a nuclear reactor or a large machine is decommissioned, it is taken out of use and taken apart because it is no longer going to be used.”举个🌰：The ships were to be decommissioned. 这些船即将被停止使用。

Japan has been collecting and storing the contaminated water in tanks for more than a decade, but space is running out.

十多年来，日本一直在收集和储存受污染的水，但存储空间已十分有限。

表示“污染；弄脏”，英文解释为“to make a substance or place dirty or no longer pure by adding a substance that is dangerous or carries disease”举个🌰：The drinking water has become contaminated with lead. 饮用水被铅污染了。

In 2011, a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake flooded three reactors of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. The event is regarded as the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

2011年，9.0级地震引发的海啸淹没了福岛第一核电站的三座反应堆。这被视为自切尔诺贝利事件以来世界上最严重的核灾难。

1）作动词，除了表示“发动；引起；触发”，英文解释为“to make sth happen suddenly”举个🌰：Nuts can trigger off a violent allergic reaction. 坚果可以引起严重的过敏反应。

2）作名词，表示“扳机”，英文解释为“The trigger of a gun is a small lever which you pull to fire it.”举个🌰：A man pointed a gun at them and pulled the trigger. 一个男人用枪指着他们，扣动了扳机。

类似的还有：

📍stir表示“激发，激起（强烈的感情）；引起（强烈的反应）”，英文解释为“to make someone have a strong feeling or reaction”，举个🌰：The poem succeeds in stirring the imagination. 这首诗能够激发起想象力。

📍provoke也表示“激起，引起”，英文解释为“to cause a reaction or feeling, especially a sudden one”，如：provoke debate/discussion 激起辩论/讨论。

📍spur 鼓动；激励；鞭策；刺激；鼓舞”，英文解释为“If one thing spurs you to do another, it encourages you to do it.”举个🌰：It's the money that spurs these fishermen to risk a long ocean journey in their flimsy boats. 是金钱驱使这些渔民驾驶单薄的小船冒险出海远航。

🎬电影《龙之心3：巫师的诅咒》（Dragonheart 3: The Sorcerer's Curse）中的台词提到：To spur the clans to war. 激励部族发起战争。

magnitude /ˈmæɡ.nɪ.tʃuːd/ 1）表示“（尺寸、规模、重要性等）大的程度；巨大；重大，重要性”，英文解释为“the large size or importance of something”举个🌰：They don't seem to grasp the magnitude of the problem. 他们似乎未领会问题的重要性。

2）表示“震级”（the size of an earthquake）。

Shortly after, authorities set up an exclusion zone which continued to be expanded as radiation leaked from the plant, forcing more than 150,000 people to evacuate from the area.

此后不久，当局设立了一个禁区，而随着核电站的辐射泄漏，该禁区不断扩大，迫使15万多人从该地区撤离。

表示“排斥；排除在外”，英文解释为“the act of not allowing someone or something to take part in an activity or to enter a place”如：her exclusion from the list of Oscar nominees 她被排除在奥斯卡奖提名名单之外。

radiation /ˌreɪ.diˈeɪ.ʃən/ 表示“（核）辐射”，英文解释为“a form of energy that comes from a nuclear reaction and that can be very dangerous to health”举个🌰：Many servicemen suffered radiation sickness after the early atomic tests. 很多军人在早期的原子弹试爆后患上了辐射病。

evacuate /ɪˈvæk.ju.eɪt/ 表示“疏散; 使…撤离”，英文解释为“To evacuate someone means to send them to a place of safety, away from a dangerous building, town, or area.”举个🌰：They were planning to evacuate the ten officials still in the country. 他们当时在计划将仍在那个国家的10位官员撤离。

The plan to release water from the plant has caused alarm across Asia and the Pacific since it was approved by the Japanese government two years ago.

两年前，日本政府批准了核电站排水计划，自那时以来，整个亚太地区都对此感到担忧。

It was signed off by the UN's nuclear watchdog in July, with authorities concluding the impact on people and the environment would be negligible.

今年7月，联合国核监督机构批准了该计划，并得出结论称，对人类和环境的影响微乎其微。

negligible /ˈneɡlɪdʒəbl/ 表示“微不足道的，可忽略的，不重要的”，英文解释为“too slight or small in amount to be of importance”举个🌰：The difference between the two products is negligible. 两种产品之间的差异微乎其微。

But many people, including fishermen in the region, fear that discharging the treated water will affect their livelihoods.

但许多人，包括该地区的渔民，担心排放处理后的水会影响他们的生计。

作动词，1）表示“准许（某人）离开；解雇；（尤指）允许…出院；（根据法庭决议）释放”，英文解释为“to give sb official permission to leave a place or job; to make sb leave a job”举个🌰：Patients were being discharged from the hospital too early. 病人都过早获准出院。More than half of all prisoners discharged are reconvicted within two years. 在获释的犯人中有一半多在两年内又被再次判刑。

2）表示“开（枪），射出（子弹）”，英文解释为“to fire a gun, or to fire a shot from a gun”举个🌰：The police stated that some 10 rounds had been discharged. 警方称大约射出了10发子弹。

作名词，1）表示“开枪，开火”，英文解释为“the action of firing a gun”。

2）表示“（尤指废液或废气的）排放”，英文解释为“the act of sending out waste liquid or gas”

A crowd of protesters in Tokyo on Tuesday also staged a rally outside the prime minister's official residence, urging the government to stop the release.

周二，东京的一群抗议者在日本首相官邸外举行了集会，敦促政府停止排放。

1）表示“上演；举办；举行”，英文解释为“to organize and present a play or an event for people to see”，如：to stage a ceremony/an event/an exhibition 举行仪式/活动/展览，举个🌰：The local theatre group is staging a production of ‘Hamlet’. 当地剧团在上演《哈姆雷特》。

2）表示“组织；筹划”，英文解释为“to organize and take part in action that needs careful planning, especially as a public protest”，如：to stage a ceremony/an event/an exhibition 举行仪式/活动/展览。

3）表示“使发生；使出现”，英文解释为“to make sth happen”举个🌰：After five years in retirement, he staged a comeback to international tennis. 退役五年之后，他又复出国际网坛。

🎬电影《无罪的罪人》（Presumed Innocent）中的台词提到：Your opinion is that this was... a staged rape? 你的看法是这是…有预谋的强奸？

Plant operators Tepco have been filtering the water to remove more than 60 radioactive substances but the water will not be entirely radiation-free as it will still contain tritium and carbon-14- radioactive isotopes of hydrogen and carbon that cannot be easily removed from water.

核电站运营商东京电力公司一直在对水进行过滤，以去除60多种放射性物质，但这些水并非完全无辐射，因为水中仍含有难以去除的氚和碳-14——氢和碳的放射性同位素。

1）表示“物质；材料”，英文解释为“material with particular physical characteristics”如：an organic/chemical substance 有机/化学物质。

2）表示“重要性；要旨；实质；根据”，英文解释为“importance, seriousness, or relationship to real facts”举个🌰：There is no substance in/to the allegation. 这项指控毫无根据。

isotope /ˈaɪsəˌtəʊp/ 表示“同位素”，英文解释为“Isotopes are atoms that have the same number of protons and electrons but different numbers of neutrons and therefore have different physical properties.”

But experts have said they are not a danger unless consumed in large quantities, because they emit very low levels of radiation.

但专家表示，除非大量摄入，否则不会构成危险，因为它们释放的辐射量非常低。

表示“（尤指可测量或确定的）量，数量，分量”，英文解释为“the amount or number of something, especially that can be measured”举个🌰：Police found a large/small quantity of drugs in his possession. 警方发现他携带大/少量毒品。

表示“发出，射出，散发（光、噪声、气味或气体）”，英文解释为“to send out a beam, noise, smell, or gas”举个🌰：The alarm emits infrared rays which are used to detect any intruder. 警报器能发出红外线探测闯入者。

"As long as the discharge is carried out as planned, radiation doses to people will be vanishingly small - more than a thousand times less than doses we all get from natural radiation every year," says Prof Jim Smith, who teaches environmental science at the University of Portsmouth.

朴茨茅斯大学（University of Portsmouth）环境科学教授吉姆·史密斯（Jim Smith）表示：“只要按计划进行排放，人们所受的辐射剂量将是微乎其微的——比我们每年从自然辐射获得的剂量少了上千倍。”

1）表示“一剂”（a measured amount of something such as medicine），如：a dose of penicillin 一剂青霉素；

2）表示“一些（糟糕或不愉快的事）”，英文解释为“an amount or experience of something, often something bad or unpleasant”举个🌰：He received a hefty dose of bad news this week. 本周他得到了许多坏消息。

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述谷歌的文章中提到：The first route would involve taking a strong dose of managerial medicine to become a more tightly run conglomerate. 第一种解决方法是给它服用一剂管理上的强效药，让它成为管理更严格的企业集团。

vanishingly /ˈvæn.ɪ.ʃɪŋ.li/ 表示“难以觉察地；消遁似的”，英文解释为“used to emphasize how small, rare, etc. something is, so that it almost does not exist ”举个🌰：There is only a vanishingly small chance that the dispute will end peacefully. 这场争执几乎没有能够以和平告终的机会。

Experts also note that the contaminated water is being released into a massive body of water, the Pacific Ocean.

专家还指出，受污染的水将被排放到太平洋这一巨大水体中。

"Anything released from the site will therefore be massively diluted," says Prof Gerry Thomas, who teaches molecular pathology at the Imperial College London.

伦敦帝国理工学院（Imperial College London）分子病理学教授杰瑞·托马斯（Gerry Thomas）表示：“从这个地方排放的任何物质都将被大大稀释。”

📍molecular /məʊˈlɛkjʊlə/ 表示“分子的”，英文解释为“Molecular means relating to or involving molecules.”，如：the molecular structure of fuel 燃料的分子结构。

📍molecule /ˈmɒl.ɪ.kjuːl/ 表示“分子”，英文解释为“the smallest unit, consisting of a group of atoms, into which a substance can be divided without a change in its chemical nature”

pathology /pəˈθɒl.ə.dʒi/ 表示“病理学”，英文解释为“the scientific study of disease”

Tokyo has previously said the water that will be released into the Pacific Ocean, which has been mixed with seawater, has tritium and carbon 14 levels that meet safety standards.

日本方面此前曾表示，即将被排放入太平洋的水已与海水混合，其氚和碳-14含量符合安全标准。

Nuclear plants around the world regularly release waste water with tritium levels above that of the treated water from Fukushima.

与经过处理的福岛核污染水相比，全球各地的核电厂常规排放的废水中氚含量更高。

But the plan has caused uproar in neighbouring countries, with China the most vocal opponent. It accused Japan of treating the ocean like its "private sewer."

但该计划在邻国引起了强烈反响，其中中国是最直言不讳的反对者，指责日本将海洋视为“自家下水道”。

表示“骚动；怨愤；喧嚣；嘈杂；吵闹”，英文解释为“a situation in which there is a lot of public criticism and angry argument about sth that sb has said or done”举个🌰：The article caused (an) uproar. 这篇文章引起了轩然大波。

sewer /sʊər/ 表示“下水道；排污管；阴沟”，英文解释为“a large pipe, usually underground, that is used for carrying waste water and human waste away from buildings to a place where they can be safely got rid of”如：a sewer pipe 污水管。

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin reiterated Beijing's objection on Tuesday, adding it would take "necessary measures to safeguard the marine environment, food safety and public health".

周二，中国外交部发言人汪文斌重申了中方反对立场，并表示将采取“一切必要措施，维护海洋环境，维护食品安全和公众健康”。

表示“反复地说；重申”，英文解释为“to repeat sth that you have already said, especially to emphasize it”

marine /məˈriːn/ 1）表示“海的；海产的；海生的”，英文解释为“connected with the sea and the creatures and plants that live there”；

2）表示“海船的；货船的；海上贸易的”，英文解释为“connected with ships or trade at sea”。

Japan is "putting its own self-interest over the long-term well-being of all humankind" with the release of waste water, Mr Wang said.

汪文斌表示，日本“将一己私利凌驾于全人类长远福祉之上”。

Both South Korea and China have already banned fish imports from around Fukushima.

中国和韩国已禁止从福岛周边进口鱼类。

South Korea's government, however, has endorsed the plan, and has accused protesters of scaremongering.

不过，韩国政府已支持了该计划，并指责抗议者危言耸听。

endorse 动词，1）表示“（公开）赞同，支持，认可”，英文解释为“to say publicly that you support a person, statement or course of action”举个🌰：I wholeheartedly endorse his remarks. 我真诚地赞同他的话。

2）表示“（在广告中）宣传，代言（某一产品）”，英文解释为“to say in an advertisement that you use and like a particular product so that other people will want to buy it”；

3）表示“（在支票背面）签名，背书”，英文解释为“to write your name on the back of a cheque so that it can be paid into a bank account”；

🎬电影《侏罗纪公园》（Jurassic Park）中的台词提到：After careful consideration, I've decided not to endorse your park. 仔细考虑以后 我决定不为你的公园背书。

⚠️这里补充一下，看到上面的「背书」你可能疑惑了，除了在金融上的含义，现在往往被用于政治领域。

scaremongering /ˈskeəˌmʌŋ.ɡər.ɪŋ/ 表示“散布骇人听闻的消息；制造恐慌”，英文解释为“If one person or group accuses another person or group of scaremongering, they accuse them of deliberately spreading worrying stories to try and frighten people.”

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