美国国家公共电台 NPR--The International Atomic Energy Agency is on a risky mission in Ukraine

The International Atomic Energy Agency is on a risky¹ mission in Ukraine

Transcript²

NPR's Leila Fadel talks with former International Atomic Energy Agency official Olli Heinonen (OH-lee HAY-noh-nen) about the IAEA mission to Ukraine to inspect Europe's largest nuclear plant.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

The International Atomic Energy Agency is on a risky mission. A team of experts reportedly arrived in Ukraine and could begin to inspect Europe's largest nuclear plant later this week. Repeated shelling around the Zaporizhzhia plant raises the threat of a nuclear disaster for southern Ukraine and beyond. So what can the inspectors³ do in the middle of a war zone? Joining us now by Skype is Olli Heinonen. He is a former deputy director of the International Atomic Energy Agency. He's now a fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington. Good morning.

OLLI HEINONEN: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

FADEL: Thank you for being on the program. So I wanted to start with that big question. How do you safely inspect a nuclear facility in the middle of an active war zone?

HEINONEN: Well, it is certainly difficult, and everything depends on the arrangements which have been done beforehand because we have seen that Mr. Grossi has visited a couple of times Ukraine, talked with the authorities, met with the Russian officials in Turkey. So they have done everything to make it possible to have a safe visit by the IAEA inspectors there and most importantly, also, to ensure that they have access to the - all the buildings at the site, talk with the relevant people, perhaps also take photos and videos for later evaluation⁴.

FADEL: Now, the inspection⁵ is scheduled to last only a few days. Based on your expertise⁶, what can inspectors accomplish in just a few days?

HEINONEN: Well, first of all, you'll see that there is about one dozen inspectors, so there is enough person power to do. But they try to establish the status of the reactor⁷. Is it in safe mode of operation? What are the views of the facility operators? Which are the deficiencies the operators see? Which are the services they may be lacking of - spare parts, additional support? What is the status of the facility from the safety point of view in general? They put all this together and evaluate at the site and then come back to Vienna and continue to work with that. But I want to add one thing here. This should not be a one-time visit. The IAEA has to establish maybe even a continuous presence at this facility to make sure that it operates safely and it has all the services available which a safe operator requires.

FADEL: Now, how unusual is this entire situation - a nuclear power plant under threat and inspectors going to inspect it in the middle of active conflict?

HEINONEN: Yeah, this has happened a couple of times before. We just have forgotten about it. In the time of Iran-Iraq war, the IAEA inspected facilities both in Iran and in Iraq. Then during the Yugoslavia war, one of the reactors⁸ operating nuclear power plants was on the war zone. So special arrangements were done, and I think that we were also lucky that nothing special happened. So this is unusual event, but this is more serious than the previous cases because this war is much more intensive, and this reactor is in the frontline.

FADEL: Right.

HEINONEN: On one side of the Dnieper River is the Russian forces occupying eastern Ukraine, and on the other side are Ukrainian forces which are defending their country. And there has been shelling from this nuclear side towards the Ukrainian side. So it appears to me that the Russians use this as a shield for their military activities, which is totally unacceptable.

FADEL: Should a nuclear accident happen, which is what everyone fears, how many people would this actually impact? Like, how wide-reaching would the danger be?

HEINONEN: Well, it certainly depends on the scale of the accident, but if we take a very serious one as an example with the Fukushima power plant accident about 10 years ago - so it will be 150 kilometers from that spot will scatter⁹ radioactive fallout and contamination. And in the proximity¹⁰ of the facility, maybe radius¹¹ of 50, 100 kilometers, even, there needs to be some evacuation for a while. But this is most likely not going to be like a Chernobyl, where the reactor caught fire, and that fire caused this long-distance radioactive nuclide fallout. We should not see in this kind of reactor that kind of phenomena¹², fortunately. But still, small accidents are very possible. And that's why one has to take care of this place. And in my view, it should be a military exclusion¹³, so...

FADEL: Olli Heinonen is a former deputy director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, now a fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington. Thank you so much for your time.

HEINONEN: Thank you.

1 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 inspectors   

n.检查员( inspector的名词复数 )；（英国公共汽车或火车上的）查票员；（警察）巡官；检阅官

参考例句：

• They got into the school in the guise of inspectors. 他们假装成视察员进了学校。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Inspectors checked that there was adequate ventilation. 检查员已检查过，通风良好。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 evaluation   

n.估价，评价；赋值

参考例句：

• I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
• The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。

5 inspection   

n.检查，审查，检阅

参考例句：

• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。
• The soldiers lined up for their daily inspection by their officers.士兵们列队接受军官的日常检阅。

6 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

7 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

8 reactors   

起反应的人( reactor的名词复数 )； 反应装置； 原子炉； 核反应堆

参考例句：

• The TMI nuclear facility has two reactors. 三哩岛核设施有两个反应堆。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• The earliest production reactors necessarily used normal uranium as fuel. 最早为生产用的反应堆，必须使用普通铀作为燃料。

9 scatter   

vt.撒，驱散，散开；散布/播；vi.分散，消散

参考例句：

• You pile everything up and scatter things around.你把东西乱堆乱放。
• Small villages scatter at the foot of the mountain.村庄零零落落地散布在山脚下。

10 proximity   

n.接近，邻近

参考例句：

• Marriages in proximity of blood are forbidden by the law.法律规定禁止近亲结婚。
• Their house is in close proximity to ours.他们的房子很接近我们的。

11 radius   

n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限

参考例句：

• He has visited every shop within a radius of two miles.周围两英里以内的店铺他都去过。
• We are measuring the radius of the circle.我们正在测量圆的半径。

12 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。

13 exclusion   

n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行

参考例句：

• Don't revise a few topics to the exclusion of all others.不要修改少数论题以致排除所有其他的。
• He plays golf to the exclusion of all other sports.他专打高尔夫球，其他运动一概不参加。