福岛事故后 日本给核反应堆重开绿灯

TOKYO — For the first time since the Fukushima disaster three years ago, Japan’s new nuclear regulatory agency declared Wednesday that an atomic power plant was safe to operate, in a widely watched move that brings Japan a step closer to restarting its idled nuclear industry.

东京——自三年前的福岛灾难以来，日本新的核监管机构第一次于周三宣布一个原子能发电厂可以安全运转，这个广受关注的举动，把日本向重启其闲置的核能工业带近了一步。

The two reactors at the Sendai power plant on the southern island of Kyushu are the first to be certified as safe enough to restart by the Nuclear Regulation Authority since the agency was created two years ago to restore public confidence in nuclear oversight. All of Japan’s 48 operable commercial nuclear reactors were shut down after the March 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station created serious public doubts about the safety of atomic power in earthquake-prone Japan.

位于九州岛南部的川内核电厂的两座反应堆，被原子能管制委员会(Nuclear Regulation Authority)首批认证为足够安全、可以重启，该委员会成立于两年前，旨在恢复公众对核监督的信心。2011年3月福岛第一核电站3座反应堆核心熔毁，引起公众对地震多发的日本的核能安全问题的严重疑虑，之后，日本的48座可运行的商业核反应堆全部关闭。

Even with the approval, it will still likely be months before either of the reactors can be turned back on. In addition to further safety checks, the plant’s operator, Kyushu Electric Power Company, must also obtain the consent of local governments around the plant. The final decision on whether to restart the plant will be made by the prime minister, probably in December, according to local news media reports.

即使得到了批准，这两座反应堆中的任何一个重新开启仍可能需要好几个月的时间。核电厂的操作方九州电力公司，除了要做进一步的安全检查外，还必须获得发电厂附近地方政府的同意。据当地新闻媒体报道，是否重启核电厂的最终决定将由首相作出，可能是在12月。

The approval follows intense political pressure on the new agency by the government of the current prime minister, Shinzo Abe, a pro-big business leader who wants to restore atomic energy as part of his strategy to revive the nation’s long anemic economy. He also wants to turn the plants back on in order to end Japan’s ballooning trade deficits, which many here blame on the rising cost of imported fuel to make up for the loss of nuclear-generated electricity.

安倍晋三首相的政府给新机构批准反应堆运转施加了巨大的政治压力，安倍晋三是一位亲大企业的领导人，他想把恢复原子能工业作为自己振兴国内长期疲软经济的战略之一。他也想通过重启核电厂来结束日本不断增长的贸易赤字，日本有许多人认为，贸易赤字增长是由于为了弥补失去的核能发电，进口燃料的费用在增加。

However, opinion polls have shown that the public remains skeptical about both the safety of the plants and the ability to ensure that safety by Mr. Abe’s governing Liberal Democratic Party, which has long had close ties to the politically powerful nuclear industry. Those doubts were aired last month, during a monthlong public comment period after the agency released a draft report in July that expressed approval of the Sendai plant’s safety measures.

不过，民意调查显示，老百姓对核电厂的安全、以及由安倍晋三的自民党执政的政府确保这种安全的能力仍持怀疑态度，自民党长期以来与政治上很强大的核工业有着密切的关系。上个月，这些疑虑在为期一个月的公众评议期间得到充分表达，公众评议期是在核监管机构7月份发布了一份表示批准川内核电厂安全措施的报告草案之后。

The agency said it received 17,800 comments, more than it expected. Many were highly skeptical about the safety of the Sendai plant, which is located in a volcanically active area. Still, the agency on Wednesday ended up adopting its July findings without major modifications.

该机构表示，共收到了17,800条评论，超过其预期。许多人对位于火山活跃区的川内核电厂的安全表示高度怀疑。尽管如此，该机构在周三仍最终采用了其7月的报告，并没有做重大修改。

In a news release, the agency said it had made the decision after reviewing 18,600 pages of supporting documents filed by Kyushu Electric, as well as the results of its own inspections of the plant. It said the design and construction of the reactors and other facilities, and also the contingency plans for dealing with emergencies, met new safety standards that the agency adopted in July of last year.

该机构在新闻发布中表示，它在审查了九州电力提交的18,600页的支持文件以及自己检查核电厂的结果后，作出了上述决定。该机构说，反应堆及其他设备的设计和建造，以及应对突发事件的应急预案，都符合该机构去年7月实施的新的安全标准。

“I think the huge number of public comments, more than anything, reflects the enormous sensitivity toward the restart question, and the safety of nuclear power,” Kenzo Oshima, a commissioner at the agency, told reporters. “I also see it as reflecting a strong desire after the Fukushima accident to learn from that experience and raise the level of safety.”

原子能管制委员会委员大岛贤三(Kenzo Oshima)对记者说，“我认为数量庞大的公众意见，比任何其他东西更多地反映了对重启问题、以及对核电安全的极大敏感性。我也认为，这也反映了福岛事故发生后的一种强烈欲望：从事故中汲取教训，提高安全水平。”

Agency officials have sought to reassure the public by calling their new safety standards the most stringent in the world, saying they fully incorporate the lessons of the Fukushima disaster, which was caused when an earthquake and tsunami knocked out vital cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

该机构的官员称其新的安全标准是世界上最严格的，并说他们把福岛灾难的教训完全吸收进来了，以此来寻求让民众放心，福岛灾难的原因是地震后引发的海啸，冲毁了福岛第一核电站至关重要的冷却系统。

Opponents of the restart faulted the agency for ignoring the concerns raised in the public comments. They said the agency, which had started amid high hopes for more independent oversight of the nuclear industry, was looking more and more like a rubber stamp for the current administration.

反对重启的人指责该机构无视公众意见所表达的担忧。他们说，该机构越来越像当前政府的橡皮图章，而这个机构是在人们对核能工业得到更独立的监督的厚望下成立的。

“There was clearly huge pressure on the regulatory agency from the Abe government,” said Akira Kimura, a professor of peace studies at Kagoshima University who has been involved in efforts to block the restart of the Sendai plant. “This government is just ramming through its agenda, with complete disregard for the public will.”

鹿儿岛大学(Kagoshima University)和平学教授木村朗(Akira Kimura)参加了阻止川内核电厂重启的工作，他说，“很明显，安倍政府给监管机构施加了巨大压力。 这个政府只是在迫使他人接受其议程，完全无视公众的意愿。”