专家称日本核事故危害或言过其实

Dire warnings of radiation spreading from Japan's embattledFukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to deadly effect across Japan, or even to California, are likely overblown, they say.

日前，对于日本地震所带来的各种可怕的后果传遍世界，称日本福岛第一核电站的核辐射扩散将对全日本、甚至美国加州造成致命后果。科学家称，这种警告也许说的有点儿过了。

Radiation is all around us, varying with the number of miles we fly, the elevation of our towns, and the minerals in our environments, scientists point out. We live with it, and most of the time it is harmless.

科学家指出，我们四周到处是辐射，辐射多少和我们乘坐飞机的里数、我们居住地方的海拔以及环境的矿物质有关。人类就生活在辐射当中，而且大多数时间我们所受到的辐射是无害的。

A buy-upof potassium iodide tablets, which some say guard against some effects of radiation exposure, is “premature” in America, he says, and concerns over contaminated Japanese exports are also alarmist.

有人认为碘化钾药片可以起到一定的防辐射作用，于是人们大量买进这种药片。布希伯格认为这一举动在美国还“为时过早”。他说，有关日本出口货物受到污染的说法也是危言耸听。

Fukushima is not Chernobyl, scientists repeat, and even Chernobyl was not as deadly as popularly believed.

科学家一再强调，福岛不是切尔诺贝利，而且切尔诺贝利也不像人们所想的那么可怕和危险。

And even then, Chernobyl was a very different incident from what is now unfolding at Fukushima Daiichi. Chernobyl’s reactor lacked a containment facility, unlike the Fukushima plant, whose GE-made containment vessels have withstood both an earthquake, tsunami, and thus far, a partial meltdown.

尽管都是核事故，切尔诺贝利事故和现在福岛第一核电站发生的事故也是不同的。切尔诺贝利核电站的反应堆缺少防范设施，而福岛核电站有美国通用制造的防范设施，而且福岛核反应堆已经经历了一场地震和一场海啸，迄今为止，也只是部分核心熔毁而已。