日本称，向太平洋倾倒福岛的放射性污水是“唯一的选择”

日本称，向太平洋倾倒福岛的放射性污水是“唯一的选择”

On March 11, 2011, Japan was struck by the most powerful earthquake in the nation's history – a magnitude 9 temblor that triggered a tsunami with waves up to 133 feet (40 meters) high. The disaster set off three nuclear meltdowns and three hydrogen explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.

2011年3月11日，日本遭遇了有史以来最强烈的地震——9级地震引发了高达133英尺(40米)的海啸。这场灾难在福岛第一核电站引发了三次核熔毁和三次氢爆炸。

Eight years later, Fukushima holds more than 1 million tons of contaminated water.

八年后，福岛拥有超过100万吨的污水。

The water comes from two main sources. First, the tsunami caused the reactor cores to overheat and melt, so cleanup workers injected water into the cores to cool them. In the wake of the accident, groundwater also seeped in beneath the reactors and mixed with radioactive material.

污水来自两个主要来源。首先，海啸导致反应堆堆芯过热并融化，因此清理人员向堆芯注水降温。事故发生后，地下水也渗入反应堆下方，并与放射性物质混合。

To store this contaminated water, the plant currently has 1,000 sealed tanks. But the water is still accumulating. There's enough room to keep the liquid contained through summer 2022, but after that, there will be no space left.

为了储存这些被污染的水，工厂目前有1000个密封水箱。但是水还在积聚。这里有足够的空间在2022年夏天保持液态，但在那之后，就没有空间了。

At a news briefing in Tokyo, Japan's environment minister, Yoshiaki Harada, said that come 2022, "the only option will be to drain it into the sea and dilute" the contaminated water.

在东京举行的新闻发布会上，日本环境大臣原田佳明(Yoshiaki Harada)表示，到2022年，“唯一的选择将是把污水排入大海，稀释”受污染的水。

The Japanese government, however, is waiting on a verdict from a panel of experts before making a final decision about what to do with the water.

然而，日本政府正在等待一个专家小组的裁决，然后再就如何处理这些水做出最终决定。

Meanwhile, the environmental group Greenpeace said in a statement that the "only environmentally acceptable option" would be to continue to store the water and filter it for contaminants.

与此同时，环保组织绿色和平(Greenpeace)在一份声明中表示，“唯一环保上可以接受的选择”将是继续储存污水，并过滤其中的污染物。

But that would require more tanks and an expensive filtration process.

但这需要更多的储罐和昂贵的过滤过程。