50名勇士临危坚守核电站 承受大量辐射性命堪忧

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.
周二，日本福岛第一核电站：一小队技师顶着核辐射，冒着不断燃起的烈火，成了这座核电站内仅剩的留守人员。他们或许是阻止这场核危机扩散的唯一希望了。

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.
他们在迷宫般的仪器堆中费力前行，四周一片漆黑，手电提供了仅有的一丝光线，照亮了黑暗中前进的路。耳畔时不时响起氢气的爆炸声：从损毁的反应堆中泄露出来的氢气与空气接触，燃烧，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.
他们头戴难受的呼吸器或身背沉重的氧气罐，穿着白色防护服、贴身面罩以保护自己免受隐形辐射威胁，不过恐怕作用甚微，辐射早已进入他们体内。

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.
他们是五十名无名勇士，不留姓名，在核电站内奋斗。他们或自愿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毁，但该些燃料已出现部分融毁现象并有放射性物质放出，一旦全部融毁，上万吨放射性粉尘将进入大气层，威胁他们亿万同胞的生命安全。

The company continued to fight problems in several reactors on Wednesday, including a fire at the plant.
周三，东京电力公司仍在全力应对各反应堆出现的各种问题，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.
现在，工作人员也被要求撤离——这或许至关生死——目前的伤亡情况还不明了：日本卫生部周二表示要将工作人员可接触的放射含量法定标准从100微西弗提高到250微西弗，这大约是美国核电站规定工作人员所能收到最大辐射的5倍。