万花筒2008-02-29:佛罗里达停电事件

American Elec. Reliability¹ Corp. explains why the nuclear plant shut down in Florida.

A: As far as we know, Turkey Point is going through the normal procedures for a safe and controlled shutdown. That's what always happens with nuclear plants when they go offline unexpectedly. So the operators there are doing everything they can to helping² that plant down safely.  

B: And any idea at this point as to what caused these power outages, what caused the transmissions to go down?  

A: The information we have was that there was a short-circuit in a substation in South Florida and the protective systems that are designed to contain the problem to that substation did not work correctly, so the problem spread very rapidly, and that's why it became a widespread outage. But the … 

B: So what's supposed to happen when something like that goes down?  

A: Well, what's supposed to happen is the protective equipments are supposed to limit it to that problem. Just like in your home, if you have a short-circuit in your wall, only that circuit breaker should trip and not your whole house go without power. In this case, the circuit breaker apparently³ didn't work and that's why it spread to a much larger area.  

B: And we are talking, especially when it comes to Florida power and light between 600, 000 and 800, 000 people affected⁴. And Don was talking a little bit earlier, and it does make sense that even though this may not have worked exactly how it was supposed to, the fact that these power plants did shut down is a good thing.  

A: Absolutely. That's what they're designed to do. Whether it's a nuclear plant, a coal plant or a gas fired plant they all are supposed to shut down in order to protect themselves, so they are not damaged and that they can be started back up again and continue to supply power.  

B: So what happens now? Do they go back to the source of the problem, and you have to fix it at that point before you can bring all the other plants online?  

A: Usually you can bypass the initial cause of the problem and get everybody back online and the companies in Florida, Tampa Electric, Florida Power and Light, and Progress, are all in the processes of doing that now getting their customers back on.  

B: And Stan, from what you are hearing this was just simply a technical glitch⁵? We spoke⁶ with our Homeland Securities correspondent, Jeanne Meserve. She said at this point she has not heard anything dealing⁷ with terrorism. So I have to ask you, have you heard anything to that extent on your end?  

A: No, we have not. All the information that we have is consistent with what Jeanne has. This appears to be a technical problem, no indication whatsoever⁸ of any kind of terrorist activity.  

B: Well, that is good news. And quickly as we wait for this comeback online, we've got a number of different estimates somewhere between 10 hours and then others are saying between two and four. What do you expect?  

A: It depends where you are talking about in the State of Florida. Areas like Tampa and on the east coast, the central east coast that will be coming back on much more quickly. The areas in southern Florida will take a little bit longer. So it's gonna depend a bit on location.

1 reliability   

n.可靠性，确实性

参考例句：

• We mustn't presume too much upon the reliability of such sources.我们不应过分指望这类消息来源的可靠性。
• I can assure you of the reliability of the information.我向你保证这消息可靠。

2 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

3 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

4 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

5 glitch   

n.干扰；误操作，小故障

参考例句：

• There is a glitch in the computer program somewhere.这个计算机程序中的某个部分有点小问题。
• It could just be a random glitch that can be solved by restarting the machine.可能只是一个小故障，重新启动主机就能解决了。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

8 whatsoever   

adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么

参考例句：

• There's no reason whatsoever to turn down this suggestion.没有任何理由拒绝这个建议。
• All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,do ye even so to them.你想别人对你怎样，你就怎样对人。