VOA慢速英语2014 美国欲测试福岛辐射值

 

AS IT IS 2014-08-02 Americans Test Seawater for Fukushima Radiation 美国欲测试福岛辐射值

It has been more than three years since the nuclear accident at the Fukushima power station in Japan. Millions of liters of radioactive cooling water from the power center poured into the Pacific Ocean. Experts predicted some of that water would reach the West Coast of North America this year. But they said it would not be very radioactive, so Americans should not be worried.

But some people living on the West Coast have decided¹ to pay for tests of the seawater anyway.

Wayne Kinslow likes to swim near his home in Seattle, Washington.

"I just love the water. So I go out. It's great exercise."

Wayne Kinslow swims about 20 minutes a day in the cold waters of Puget Sound. So he willingly paid more than $500 for an independent water test. The test did not find evidence of radiation from the nuclear plant.

"This is something that was really important to me because I'm out there every day and I don't really want to die. So, it's best to test, to test the water and this is my chance. So I, as soon as we got an opportunity, I just threw all the money at it for the first sample."

Mr. Kinslow is not the only person who is concerned that there might be radiation in the water. Terry Waldron is a high school art teacher. She is collecting money to test the waters near her family's property in Newport, Oregon.

"You know, for a while, I thought about not eating fish, for a while. And I thought, I can't do that. You know, but I was so concerned at a point because I couldn't find any information. So I, I do eat fish, I do. But I, I still want that test done."

Terry Waldron and Wayne Kinslow have joined a project called "Our Radioactive Ocean." It is collecting donations to pay for testing at about 30 places from California north to Alaska. The program operates under the supervision² of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

Ms. Waldron and Mr. Kinslow say they are having a hard time persuading people to give money to the project. One possible reason for this is that scientists and government agencies have been saying for some time that people should not worry about the radiation.

Scientists are able to discover where radiation comes from by looking at what is called a nuclear "fingerprint³." The fingerprint from the Fukushima nuclear power center is a combination of two isotopes⁴ of the element cesium.

Kathy Higley is a professor of Radiation Health Physics at Oregon State University. She believes people should not be worried about radiation levels in the ocean.

"With the samples that we've taken that are along the, the West Coast, we don't see anything of concern. We don't expect to see anything. It has diluted⁶. It has decayed. It has dispersed⁷. My husband and I take our kids to the coast all the time. We are not at all concerned about it. We eat seafood⁸. We're not concerned about it."

Professor Higley says Oregon State graduate students are looking for radiation from the Fukushima accident. They are studying the movement of seawater and fish by examining isotopes released in the accident.

This summer, one of her students collected seawater and fish from the coasts of Washington state and Oregon. Delvan Neville is now looking at them.

The fish and water samples go into a detector⁹ designed to measure even low levels of radiation. The detector is covered in lead bricks. The samples stay in the machine for several days.

"Yeah, it takes a long time to count it -- one, because there's so little activity present. Even in the worst case model, there may be just a few Becquerels (a measure of radioactivity) at most of cesium 137 on the detector."

Mr. Neville says people should not be worried about low radiation levels. He says we are surrounded by natural radiation.

"Several seconds worth in a stuffy¹⁰ basement was a larger dose than consuming a year's worth of albacore. But people are not aware of all the things around them that are radioactive. They don't consider themselves radioactive."

State public health agencies are also testing seawater. Results from Oregon show normal levels. Officials in Washington have yet to release results. But some people are still worried that radiation levels may be higher because of the Fukushima accident.

Ken⁵ Buesseler is a chemist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. He says many people have called him asking if he had started a citizen science testing program. He has. It is the "Our Radioactive Ocean" project. That is the project the swimmer and the art teacher we heard from earlier in this report gave money to.

"Given this concern and the numerous requests for information, I just decided if we could put up and do this with crowd-funding, we could do this quickly and get people the information they want and basically let them select their beach -- their favorite site -- for analyses."

Another project uses seaweed plants as a radiation detector.  Kelp Watch has expanded from its beginning at several California universities. It now examines cesium levels off the coast of Washington and near Vancouver Island in Canada. Brown seaweeds are known to keep cesium, strontium and iodine¹¹ in their tissues. But Kelp Watch says all of the kelp it has examined so far showed no signs of radiation from Fukushima.

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

3 fingerprint   

n.指纹；vt.取...的指纹

参考例句：

• The fingerprint expert was asked to testify at the trial.指纹专家应邀出庭作证。
• The court heard evidence from a fingerprint expert.法院听取了指纹专家的证词。

4 isotopes   

n.同位素；同位素( isotope的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• the many isotopes of carbon 碳的诸多同位素
• Tritium is one of the mildest radioactive isotopes. 氚是最和缓的放射性同位素之一。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 ken   

n.视野，知识领域

参考例句：

• Such things are beyond my ken.我可不懂这些事。
• Abstract words are beyond the ken of children.抽象的言辞超出小孩所理解的范围.

6 diluted   

无力的，冲淡的

参考例句：

• 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。
• This pesticide is diluted with water and applied directly to the fields. 这种杀虫剂用水稀释后直接施用在田里。

7 dispersed   

adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的

参考例句：

• The clouds dispersed themselves. 云散了。
• After school the children dispersed to their homes. 放学后，孩子们四散回家了。

8 seafood   

n.海产食品，海味，海鲜

参考例句：

• There's an excellent seafood restaurant near here.离这儿不远有家非常不错的海鲜馆。
• Shrimps are a popular type of seafood.小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。

9 detector   

n.发觉者，探测器

参考例句：

• The detector is housed in a streamlined cylindrical container.探测器安装在流线型圆柱形容器内。
• Please walk through the metal detector.请走过金属检测器。

10 stuffy   

adj.不透气的，闷热的

参考例句：

• It's really hot and stuffy in here.这里实在太热太闷了。
• It was so stuffy in the tent that we could sense the air was heavy with moisture.帐篷里很闷热，我们感到空气都是潮的。

11 iodine   

n.碘，碘酒

参考例句：

• The doctor painted iodine on the cut.医生在伤口上涂点碘酒。
• Iodine tends to localize in the thyroid.碘容易集于甲状腺。