名人教你讲英文：堆芯熔毁

名人教英文：堆芯熔毁

地震及海啸破坏了日本福岛核电站的冷却系统，核电机组发生爆炸，威胁会导致核反应堆的堆芯熔毁。following the earthquake, explosions shook a nuclear power plant near fukushima and raised fears of a meltdown and radiation leak.

核电站因反应炉温度过高，导致核反应堆堆芯熔毁，辐射漏出，叫做meltdown。这是最严重的核灾难。1986年乌克兰的切尔诺贝尔核电厂便发生了这样的大灾难，13万人须紧急疏散，并造成数千宗癌症和畸胎：the chernobyl accident in 1986 sent thousands of tonnes of toxic nuclear dust across ukraine and russia, prompting the evacuation of 130,000 people and causing thousands of cases of cancer and birth defects.

福岛核电站发生爆炸后，附近大气中验出含有放射性元素caesium（铯）。有美国核专家认为，这显示已发生部分熔毁。a us nuclear expert said the presence of radioactive caesium in the atmosphere indicated that a partial meltdown was under way.

本来专指核灾难的meltdown，现在最常用的解法，却是指财经方面的大灾难，例如股市大崩溃叫a market meltdown，金融大灾难叫a financial meltdown。the global financial system suffered a major meltdown，全球金融大崩溃。