Cold War Waste Could Reappear Due to Global Warming(翻译)

Melting ice on Greenland could expose an unused U.S. military base that contains hazardous waste, scientists warn.
格陵兰冰雪消融可能会暴露美国一处闲置的军事基地，该军事基地存在有害废物，科学家们警示道。

Camp Century was built in 1959.The base was to study the possibility of deploying nuclear weapons from the Arctic during the Cold War.The Cold War was a period of tension between the former Soviet Union and the U.S. which lasted from the end of World War II to 1991.
世纪营建于1959年。冷战期间，该军事基地用于研究从北极地区部署核武器的可能性。冷战是指前苏联及美国僵持的时期，从二战结束一直持续至1991年。

The base was closed in 1967. Scientists thought that any hazardous material left at the base would be covered with ice forever.Now, new research suggests the base could be exposed to the environment by 2090.
该军事基地于1967年关闭。科学家们认为遗留在此处的有害废物可能会永远封在冰层之下。但最新的研究表明，该基地将于2090年暴露出来。

The base is believed to contain biological, chemical and radioactive waste.The study warns that exposed waste could disrupt Greenland’s environment.
人们认为该基地存在生物废弃物、化学废弃物和放射性废物。研究表明暴露的废弃物可能会打乱格陵兰的环境。

William Colgan is a climate and glacier scientist at York University in Canada.He is the lead author of the study.He said people dealt with waste differently 60 years ago.Now, there are new problems related to the climate that people must think about, he said.
William Colgan是加拿大约克大学气候和冰川科学家。他是该研究的首席作者。60年前，人们处理废弃物的方式与现在不同。目前出现了一些人们必须要认真考虑的问题。

Researchers have now listed the waste at the base.The hazardous substances include 200,000 liters of diesel fuel, and 240,000 liters of wastewater.There are also polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, at the site.Those chemicals are considered bad for the environment.
研究人员列举了该基地的一些废弃物。这些有害物质包括200,000升柴油、240,000升废水。此外还有多氯联苯（PCBs）。这些物质都对环境有害。

In addition, there is also an “unknown volume of low-level radioactive coolant from the nuclear generator.”
此外，核动力发电机中还存在一些低放射性冷却剂，数量未知。

Researchers studied old engineering records to find out how deeply the waste is buried and how much the ice has moved since the 1960s.
研究人员研习了较老的工程记录，了解这些废弃物埋了多深以及自20世纪60年代起，冰雪消融了多少。

All the waste could enter the environment as the climate warms and the ice sheet melts, researchers said.
研究人员表示，随着气候变暖冰雪消融，这些废弃物都可能进入环境之中。

“The question is whether it’s going to come out in hundreds of years, in thousands of years, or in tens of thousands of years,” said James White.He is a climate scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder who was not involved in the study.
James White说道：“问题是这些废弃物是数百年后、数千年后还是数万年后泄露出来呢。”他是科罗拉多大学波德分校的气候学家，他并未参加此项研究。

Camp Century covers an area about the size of 100 soccer fields. It is about 200 kilometers from Greenland’s coast.Nearly 200 soldiers lived there when it was an operating U.S. base.
世纪营面积大约为100个足球场。距离格陵兰海岸线大约200公里。当时还是美国基地时，有200名士兵在此居住。

The camp was sometimes called “the city under the ice.”
该基地有时被称作是“冰雪下的城市”。

Any possible cleanup of the site could be tricky.The base belong to the U.S.However, Greenland belongs to Denmark.
该基地的清理工作十分棘手。该基地属于美国。但格陵兰岛属于丹麦。

International law has clear rules about dealing with hazardous waste.But, it is not clear on who is responsible for cleaning up the waste from a long time ago.
就如何处理有害废物，国际法有明确的规则。但从很久之前开始，就不清楚谁应当负责处理这些废弃物。

The study was published this week in Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.
本周，该研究发表在美国地球物理协会的杂志《地球物理研究通讯》上。

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