核探员:制造核武器的"关键工种"

　　Physicist Ian Hutcheon of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is what you might call a nuclear detective. Hutcheon’s job is to look for evidence of the production of highly enriched uranium or plutonium, the essential components of nuclear weapons.

　　美国劳伦斯·利弗莫尔国家实验室的物理学家伊恩·赫琴是一名我们所说的“核探员”，他的工作是寻找某地生产高浓缩铀和钚的证据—— 这两种物质是制造核武器的关键成分。

　　Ian Hutcheon: Intercepted samples come in all sizes and shapes, very much in the same form as if you go down to your local police station and look at the types of evidence that are collected at crime scenes.

　　伊恩·赫琴：我们截获的证据样本体积、造型各异，这与你到你们当地警察局查看从犯罪现场收集来的各种证据的感觉十分相似。

　　Hutcheon receives samples from nuclear facilities throughout the world. He then tests them for evidence of illegal materials like highly enriched uranium. It’s difficult to differentiate legal material from illegal material, Hutcheon said, because uranium is everywhere.

　　赫琴收到的样本来自世界各地的核设施，他对其进行检测以寻找诸如高浓缩铀等非法材料的线索。赫琴说，区分合法材料和非法材料并不容易， 因为铀随处可见。