lethalandleaking聽(tīng)力材料原文

1、Albert Ein ste in once defi ned insanity as doing the same thing over and over aga inrtme ntand expect ing differe nt results. Well, that's what critics accuse the U.S.of: making the same mistakes over and over in a project that has already billions of dollars in taxpayers' money. But the ri

2、sk here is far greaterthan financial, since it involves highly toxic nuclear waste.At stake are milli ons of gall ons of radioactive liquid waste left over from the mak ing of nu clear bombs, in clud ing the one that was dropped on Nagasaki. This waste hasbeensittingin undergroundtanks in Hanford, W

3、ash., ever since, while thecorresp ondent Lesley Stahlgovernment tries to figure out how to clean it up. As reports, the waste is so lethal that a small cup of it would kill every one in a crowded restaura nt, i n minu tes.60 Minutes recently visited Hanford,where the witches' brew is being stor

4、ed.Hanford, located along the ColumbiaRiver, is home to the most contaminatedpiece of real estate in the world outside of Russia.It is con tam in ated by waste left over from the product ionof nu clear weap ons.There are 53 millio n gallo ns of highly radioactive liquid wastestored inunderground tan

5、ks that are now so old they have leaked one million gallons of the stuff.Some of it leaked into the groundwater, and it's heading right for the river. With a millio n people dow nstream, there's a sense of urge ncy about clea ning up the site, which is huge. It takes up 586 square miles in s

6、outheaster n Wash ington.But for the En ergy Departme nt, which runs the project, it's bee n a case of easiersaid tha n done. In the n early 16 years60 Minu tes has bee n coveri ng this story, it's bee n one foul up after the n ext.Charles Anderson, the Energy Department'sofficial overse

7、eingnuclear clean up,gave Stahl a tour of what has bee n built so far at Hanford, start ing with a replica ofthe un dergro und tan ks."This is a model of tanks that are already built that have waste in them. Be careful with your head here as we go in," Anderson told Stahl during the tour.T

8、he tank can hold 750,000 gallons of waste. Many of the tanks, built for theMan hatta n Project to develop the first n uclear weap ons, are more tha n 6Anderson explains there are a total of 177 tanks holding "high-level" waste at this site.The pla n is to pump the waste out of the tanks an

9、d route it through miles of pipesto a yet-to-be-completedpre-treatmentfacility. The idea is toconvert theadioactive waste into glass logs."This is where the radioactive waste will come from the tank farms, will come fromthose tanks and will come in here and be treated in differe nt chemical pro

10、cesses and be turned into glass logs for final disposition to be disposed of in a Iandfill," An ders on expla ins.Stahl last visited the area in 2001, when the site was just a field. Andersonsayssig ni fica nt progress has bee n made. "The pla nt's 35 perce nt complete in regard tocon

11、struct ion，” he says.But the place is a total ghost tow n. What happe ned?What happened here is that after three years of welding, pouringcement andlaying miles of pipes and tons of steel, con structi on came to a screech ing halt in2005 because the En ergy Departme nt un derestimated by 40 perce nt

12、 how strongthe buildi ng must be to withsta nd an earthquake. We're talk ing about a build ingthat would be full of radioactive liquid."In a buildi ng like this, you n eed to build it to en sure that it withsta nds whatever an earthquake may pose - if there is one - because we absolutely do

13、 not want a breech of this radioactive material in the atmosphere," says Gene Aloise of the Gover nment Acco un tability Office (GAO), Con gress' in vestigative arm.con tractor,Bechtel,But here's what 60 Minuteshas learned: that the Energy Department and the ahead with the plant knowing

14、 their seismic standard.Just as con struct ion was about to begi n in July 2002, an in depe ndent safety board sent a letter, warning the departme nt."En ergy debated with the safety board for almost two years over the sta ndards,"says Aloise."Ok, let me un dersta nd this. This is bro

15、ught up as an issue in 2002. In stead of goingback right then, they debate until 2005, during which time they're buildingthebuilding?" Stahl asked Aloise."They're buildi ng the buildi ng," he replied.some margin of safety, the con tractor,Bechtel, has told the En ergy Departme

16、 ntBut Aloise says what they do have to fix are the internal components of the building."Hangers, piping, vessel supports, all of this interior of the building, where the tech no logy's going to rest. That all has to be re-e ngin eered,"he expla ins. "Theyhave to re-do tens of tho

17、usa nds of desig ns."The seismic miscalculatio n is cost ing at least $800 milli on and a two- to four-year delay in completi ng the buildi ng. This practice of push ing ahead with con struct ion before the engin eeri ng is complete is known as "fast track.""The people in the sta

18、te of Washi ngton who are livi ng with this thing, they don'twan t it to slow dow n, they want it to speed up," Stahl remarked."But it does n't work in our view on complex, tech nical n uclear facilities like the onesin Han ford," Aloise replied.Asked what he would tell the pe

19、ople of Wash ington, Aloise said, "That we n eed todo it right."Fast track was si ngled out as a major problem five years ago whe n60 Minu teslastreported on the clea nup.Gary Jones, a GAO investigator in 2001, told 60 Minutes that they had rushed ahead with con struct ion of this buildi n

20、g at a similar site in Idaho before the desig nswere fini shed. We asked about it back the n."You're say ing they went ahead and built the buildi ng and the n when they werefini shed making all the cha nges, the equipme nt would n't fit in the buildi ng?" Stahlasked Jones in the re

21、port five years ago."The equipmentfor this particular process would not fit into the buildingas desig ned," Jones replied.Five years ago, 60 Minutes was assured the governmenthad learned from its mistakes and things were fin ally un der con trol. And yet, since the n, costs have gone throu

22、gh the roof, up more tha n 150 perce nt, and the start date for mak ing thoseThe seismic error was only one oglass logs has slipped seven years, to 2018.several snafus.Tom Carpe nter of the watchdog group called Gover nment Acco un tability Projectgot hold of internalEnergy Department and Bechtel do

23、cuments which reveal series of problems with a special tank for process ing or scrubb ing the nu clear waste.The problems bega n whe n Bechtel hired an outside ven dor to build it."They gave the wrong desig n specs to the manu facturer," says Carpe nter. "Theygave them a less strict n

24、u clear desig n."According to the documents, when the tank arrived at Hanford it had "cracked staywelds." They were fixed. But the n "differe nt types of weld defects" were discovered.And yet Bechtel went ahead and in stalled the scrubber tank any way."They still said,

25、'We can fix those whe n the tan k's in stalled.' So they went ahead andin stalled it with defects, all right?" Carpe nter says. "K nowing it, okay. So at this pointthey, Bechtel, demanded and then received a $15 millionbonus for meetingamilesto ne."Bechtel would n't gi

26、ve 60 Minu tes an on-camera in terview, but did say that the $15 millio n was n't a "bonu s," it was a fee. I n any event, after they got the mon ey, a "new deficie ncy was discovered" by "in depe ndent in spectors for Wash ington state."This new deficie ncy, says C

27、arpe nter, was discovered after the tank was in stalled.Carpe nter says, "The red flag goes up and a full in spect ion is the n ordered on thetank. Well, the full in spect ion should've bee n done at the factory where they builtthe tan k."Asked whether this in spect ion was part of the

28、 con tract, Carpe nter says, "Sure."The full in spect ion fin ally led Bechtel to realize the tank was not up to specificati on.But Carpe nter says that's not all."The design flaws 缺點(diǎn) that led to this tank being deficientapplied to 66 othervessels," Carpe nter expla in s. &qu

29、ot;Seve n of which had already bee n built.And theyhad to go and redesig n the ones that had not bee n built, and fix the ones that had bee n built. It really raises a big questi on about, well, what have they not caught out there? What other equipme nt or tools, or mach in e, is in stalled maybe un

30、 der feet of con crete that these programs failed to catch? Because their programs failed. Thecon tractor failed. The Departme ntof En ergyfailed. It took an in depe ndentinspectorto find new deficiencies. Where is the adult supervisionhere? We'retalking a nuclear facility handling some of the w

31、orst waste in the world, and they'refast track ing it? Excuse me."60 Minu tesasked Charles An ders on of the Departme nt of En ergy about this."When you hear they gave the wrong design specifications you almost can't believe it - on one piece of equipment, and then when you hear it

32、's been repeatedover and over, I mea n, that does n'tsound like the Departme ntof En ergy is man agi ng the situati on very well," Stahl said."There's a number of those issues that have occurred. Those issues have been identified and corrected but there's also a large, larg

33、e percentage of equipment where the specs have been correctly given, the equipment's been purchased correctly," An ders on replied."But there should n't be mistakes like that i n a pla nt like this, should there?" Stahl asked."Well, Lesley, in a large complex facility, a

34、project like this, you do have mistakes," he replied.An ders on ack no wledged they are big mistakes. "I would agree that there are big mistakes here that we are tak ing con trol of and we're correct in g," he says."You know, I'm gett ing a little deja vu here because whe

35、 n we were here in 2001 it was the same thin g. 'We figured it out. It's better now. No problem any more.' Do you think, being can did with us, that the departme nt's up to this?" Stahl asked."Well here's what's differe nt now. We've take n steps to provide in c

36、reased oversight,to reach out for in creased exter nal reviews," An ders on replied. "Tocomplete thisimporta nt work of dispos ing of, stabiliz ing and the n dispos ing of this waste."An ders on says that the leak ing tanks have bee n stabilized and that there's virtually no cha nee of further seepage. But Christ ine Gregoire, the gover nor of Wash ington State, who has worked on this issue from the begi nning, does n't believe that forone minute."Let me te