50名勇士臨危堅守核電站 承受大量輻射性命堪憂

A small crew of technicians, braving radiation and fire, became the only people remaining at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station on Tuesday — and perhaps Japan's last chance of preventing a broader nuclear catastrophe.
週二，日本福島第一核電站：一小隊技師頂着核輻射，冒着不斷燃起的烈火，成了這座核電站內僅剩的留守人員。他們或許是阻止這場核危機擴散的唯一希望了。

They crawl through labyrinths of equipment in utter darkness pierced only by their flashlights, listening for periodic explosions as hydrogen gas escaping from crippled reactors ignites on contact with air.
他們在迷宮般的儀器堆中費力前行，四周一片漆黑，手電提供了僅有的一絲光線，照亮了黑暗中前進的路。耳畔時不時響起氫氣的爆炸聲：從損毀的反應堆中泄露出來的氫氣與空氣接觸，燃燒，爆炸。

They breathe through uncomfortable respirators or carry heavy oxygen tanks on their backs. They wear white, full-body jumpsuits with snug-fitting hoods that provide scant protection from the invisible radiation sleeting through their bodies.
他們頭戴難受的呼吸器或身背沉重的氧氣罐，穿着白色防護服、貼身面罩以保護自己免受隱形輻射威脅，不過恐怕作用甚微，輻射早已進入他們體內。

They are the faceless 50, the unnamed operators who stayed behind. They have volunteered, or been assigned, to pump seawater on dangerously exposed nuclear fuel, already thought to be partly melting and spewing radioactive material, to prevent full meltdowns that could throw thousands of tons of radioactive dust high into the air and imperil millions of their compatriots.
他們是五十名無名勇士，不留姓名，在覈電站內奮鬥。他們或自願或被指派向暴露在外的核燃料中注入海水以防止其全部融毀，但該些燃料已出現部分融毀現象並有放射性物質放出，一旦全部融毀，上萬噸放射性粉塵將進入大氣層，威脅他們億萬同胞的生命安全。

The company continued to fight problems in several reactors on Wednesday, including a fire at the plant.
週三，東京電力公司仍在全力應對各反應堆出現的各種問題，包括一起走火事故。

The workers are being asked to make escalating — and perhaps existential — sacrifices that so far are being only implicitly acknowledged: Japan's Health Ministry said Tuesday that it was raising the legal limit on the amount of radiation exposure to which each worker could be exposed, to 250 millisieverts from 100 millisieverts, five times the maximum exposure permitted for nuclear plant workers in the United States.
現在，工作人員也被要求撤離——這或許至關生死——目前的傷亡情況還不明瞭：日本衛生部週二表示要將工作人員可接觸的放射含量法定標準從100微西弗提高到250微西弗，這大約是美國核電站規定工作人員所能收到最大輻射的5倍。