美国国家公共电台 NPR--Russian strikes stoke Ukrainian reminders of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster

Russian strikes stoke Ukrainian reminders¹ of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster

Transcript²

Workers and those living around the remains³ of the Chernobyl nuclear plant recall their experiences as they see Russia's invasion endanger another power plant.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

The Russian occupation of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant has experts running through worst-case scenarios⁴. I mean, just this morning, the plant lost external power for the second time in five days. And Ukraine is, of course, no stranger to nuclear accidents. In 1986, the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl suffered a catastrophic meltdown. NPR's Julian Hayda visited the site and has this report.

JULIAN HAYDA, BYLINE⁵: There are only two places in the world that have firsthand experience with a Level 7 nuclear event. That's the most serious measure of a disaster that experts use. And one of those places happens to be in Ukraine.

I'm pulling up to the exclusion⁶ zone around Chernobyl. It's a nearly 60-mile-wide territory that's been restricted to the public since a nuclear reactor⁷ exploded here in 1986. The disaster released radiation into the air all over Europe and will poison the land here for the next 20,000 or so years. This is one of those few places on Earth - alongside Fukushima in Japan - that became a living experiment for what would happen if things went wrong at a nuclear plant.

SERHIY BIRUK: (Through interpreter) I'm scared. I'll be honest - very, very scared.

HAYDA: That's Serhiy Biruk (ph), the head of operations here in Chernobyl. Now, he's not scared of the radiation here. That's a known quantity by now. What he is scared of is Russian negligence⁸ around nuclear sites that make it unknown.

BIRUK: (Through interpreter) The Russians are very good at trolling.

HAYDA: Trolling - getting a rise out of Ukraine and the world. Biruk thinks that's what's going on with the Russian occupation of nuclear sites.

BIRUK: (Through interpreter) Are they idiots? People are dying.

HAYDA: The human toll⁹ of Russia's invasion is something Biruk and his colleagues saw firsthand. Russia occupied the Chernobyl exclusion zone for more than a month after invading Ukraine in February. Now, Biruk's team is trying to get things in Chernobyl back to normal - at least as normal as it can be in one of the most irradiated places on Earth. In the months since Russia retreated, they're still discovering the destruction left in their wake - stolen car radios, tea kettles with parts left behind.

BIRUK: (Through interpreter) If they don't know what a tea kettle or a microwave is, then forgive me. They don't know what a nuclear power plant is.

HAYDA: His colleagues sit around a table eating fish soup.

(LAUGHTER)

HAYDA: They're a jovial¹⁰ bunch, but they sit here not having much to do. Much of their staff is on furlough. The state budget is all directed towards the war. Valentyn Rizhuk (ph) sits across from me. He made the soup and is the chief safety engineer here.

VALENTYN RIZHUK: (Through interpreter) My employees call me and ask if they'll ever get paid or if they should even find other work.

HAYDA: Usually, thousands of people work in Chernobyl, maintaining the vast area and controlling radiation levels. Having experienced occupation themselves, they can hardly imagine the stress people in Zaporizhzhia are under. There, Russia is still in control. Same goes for the hundreds of people who are allowed to live in the area.

(SOUNDBITE OF LOCK CLANKING AND KEYS JINGLING)

HAYDA: Twenty miles away, but still within the zone, I meet Sophia Arkadiyivna (ph) at her home, which is surrounded by a massive vegetable garden - her main source of food.

SOPHIA ARKADIYIVNA: (Non-English language spoken).

HAYDA: Like other pensioners¹¹, she's allowed to live out her remaining years in her childhood home, even though it was condemned¹² after the Chernobyl meltdown.

ARKADIYIVNA: (Through interpreter) Why are they terrorizing us? It's like Zaporizhzhia has to either belong to Russia or nobody at all.

HAYDA: The 77-year-old great-grandmother used to be the mayor of this village.

ARKADIYIVNA: (Through interpreter) All I ever wanted was for my grandchildren to see the fruits of their labor¹³. And in Ukraine, they had it all. But Russia wants to take it all away with their nukes and their armies.

HAYDA: There isn't a meltdown at Zaporizhzhia yet, but international inspectors¹⁴ in Zaporizhzhia have said that conditions at the plant may lead to one if the area isn't demilitarized. I ask Sophia if she ever thought people would be talking about another possible nuclear meltdown in Ukraine.

ARKADIYIVNA: (Through interpreter) No. I couldn't even dream of it when the day of Armageddon comes.

HAYDA: She and others I meet here think that Ukraine can handle its own nuclear energy safely - that it can even be good, if not for the war. But it's out of their hands, they say. All hope is on Russia to retreat from Zaporizhzhia, just like they did from here months ago.

Julian Hayda, NPR News, Chernobyl, Ukraine.

1 reminders   

n.令人回忆起…的东西( reminder的名词复数 )；提醒…的东西；（告知该做某事的）通知单；提示信

参考例句：

• The film evokes chilling reminders of the war. 这部电影使人们回忆起战争的可怕场景。
• The strike has delayed the mailing of tax reminders. 罢工耽搁了催税单的投寄。

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 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 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。

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 negligence   

n.疏忽，玩忽，粗心大意

参考例句：

• They charged him with negligence of duty.他们指责他玩忽职守。
• The traffic accident was allegedly due to negligence.这次车祸据说是由于疏忽造成的。

9 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

10 jovial   

adj.快乐的，好交际的

参考例句：

• He seemed jovial,but his eyes avoided ours.他显得很高兴，但他的眼光却避开了我们的眼光。
• Grandma was plump and jovial.祖母身材圆胖，整天乐呵呵的。

11 pensioners   

n.领取退休、养老金或抚恤金的人( pensioner的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He intends to redistribute income from the middle class to poorer paid employees and pensioners. 他意图把中产阶级到低薪雇员和退休人员的收入做重新分配。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I am myself one of the pensioners upon the fund left by our noble benefactor. 我自己就是一个我们的高贵的施主遗留基金的养老金领取者。 来自辞典例句

12 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

13 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

14 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》