SPENT FUEL POOL
乏燃料游泳池
Q. What if I took a swim in a typical spent nuclear fuel pool? Would I need to dive to actually experience a fatal amount of radiation? How long could I stay safely at the surface?
Q．如果我在一个普通的乏燃料（用过的核燃料）水池里游泳会怎么样？我是不是要潜到水底才会受到致命剂量的辐射？我在表面能安全地待多久？——乔纳森?巴斯蒂安.菲利亚特罗
A. ASSUMING YOU 8217;RE A REASONABLY good swimmer, you could probably survive treading water anywhere from 10 to 40 hours. At that point, you would black out from fatigue and drown. This is also true for a pool without nuclear fuel in the bottom.
A．假设你的游泳技术还算不错的话，那么你差不多可以通过不停踩水在水中活上10～40小时，之后你就会因为体力不支而昏迷并溺水。对于底下没有核燃料的水池来说也是这样……
Spent fuel from nuclear reactors is highly radioactive. Water is good for both radiation shielding and cooling, so fuel is stored at the bottom of pools for a couple of decades until it 8217;s inert enough to be moved into dry casks. We haven 8217;t really agreed on where to put those dry casks yet. One of these days we should probably figure that out.
核反应堆产生的乏燃料具有高度放射性。水在屏蔽辐射和散热方面性能都不错，因而乏燃料会被存放在水池底部，直到其中的放射性物质活跃程度降到一定水平后才会被转移到干桶中。对于这些干桶该储存在哪里，我们目前还没有达成共识，但总有一天，我们会找到合适的地方的。
Here 8217;s the geometry of a typical fuel storage pool:
下面是一个普通的乏燃料储存池的样子：
The heat wouldn 8217;t be a big problem. The water temperature in a fuel pool can in theory go as high as 50°C, but in practice it 8217;s generally between 25°C and 35°C-warmer than most pools but cooler than a hot tub.
辐射产生的热量不是大问题，虽然理论上来说，乏燃料池中的水温可以达到50℃，但在现实情况下，水温一般会介于25～35℃——这比大多数泳池的水温要高，但比浴缸里的热水温度要低。
The most highly radioactive fuel rods are those recently removed from a reactor. For the kinds of radiation coming off spent nuclear fuel, every 7 centimeters of water cuts the amount of radiation in half. Based on the activity levels provided by Ontario Hydro in this report, this would be the region of danger for fresh fuel rods:
辐射水平最高的燃料棒，应该是最近才从核反应堆里移除出来的那些。对于乏燃料里释放出来的辐射而言，每7厘米深的水就能让剂量减半。根据安大略电力公司的报告中给出的辐射水平，如果把刚取出来的燃料棒放在燃料池中，那么危险区域如下：
Swimming to the bottom, touching your elbows to a fresh fuel canister, and immediately swimming back up would probably be enough to kill you.
当你潜到水底，用手肘碰一下刚拿出来的燃料罐，然后立即游回水面，所受到的辐射就极有可能让你丧命。
Yet outside the outer boundary, you could swim around as long as you wanted-the dose from the core would be less than the normal background dose you get walking around. In fact, as long as you were underwater, you would be shielded from most of that normal background dose. You may actually receive a lower dose of radiation treading water in a spent fuel pool than walking around on the street.
但若是停留在最外面的那块区域，那么你想待多久就可以待多久——燃料棒核心所释放出来的辐射剂量，比你在街上四处走动时受到的背景辐记住，我只是个漫画家。如果你打算遵循我关于核废料安全问题的建议，那么之后无论发生什么都是你自作自受。射1剂量还少。实际上，只要你待在水下，那么绝大多数普通背景辐射是不会影响到你的。你在乏燃料池里踩水受到的辐射剂量没准儿比你走在大街上时受到的剂量还要少。
Remember: I am a cartoonist. If you follow my advice on safety around nuclear materials, you probably deserve whatever happens to you.
记住，我只是个漫画家。如果你打算遵循我关于核废料安全问题的建议，那么之后无论发生什么都是你自作自受。
That 8217;s if everything goes as planned. If there 8217;s corrosion in the spent fuel rod casings, there may be some fission products in the water. They do a pretty good job of keeping the water clean, and it wouldn 8217;t hurt you to swim in it, but it 8217;s radioactive enough that it wouldn 8217;t be legal to sell it as bottled water.
以上讨论完全建立在没有出任何差错的情况下，如果乏燃料棒的外壳发生了腐蚀，那么水中就可能会有些裂变产物。这些物质能够很好地清洁水质，你在里面游泳也不会受到伤害，但它的辐射剂量已经到了让你不能把这里的水当瓶装水卖出去的程度。
We know spent fuel pools can be safe to swim in because they 8217;re routinely serviced by human divers.
我们知道在乏燃料池里游泳一般来说是安全的，因为会有潜水员定期进行保养。
However, these divers have to be careful.
但是，这些潜水员也必须小心。
On August 31, 2010, a diver was servicing the spent fuel pool at the Leibstadt nuclear reactor in Switzerland. He spotted an unidentified length of tubing on the bottom of the pool and radioed his supervisor to ask what to do. He was told to put it in his tool basket, which he did. Due to bubble noise in the pool, he didn 8217;t hear his radiation alarm.
2010年8月31日，一位潜水员正维护瑞士莱布施塔特核电站的乏燃料池。突然他发现在池子底部有一段管子，不知道是什么东西，于是他通过无线电询问主管该怎么办。主管让他把管子放到他的工具篮里，他也这么做了。由于水池中气泡的声音太大，他没有听到辐射警报器的响声。
When the tool basket was lifted from the water, the room 8217;s radiation alarms went off. The basket was dropped back in the water and the diver left the pool. The diver 8217;s dosimeter badges showed that he 8217;d received a higher-than-normal whole-body dose, and the dose in his right hand was extremely high.
当工具篮被提出水面后，屋子里顿时警铃大作。工具篮被扔回水中，潜水员也马上离开了水池。他身上的辐射计量器显示他受到的全身辐射剂量比正常水平高，而他右手上的剂量更是极高。
The object turned out to be protective tubing from a radiation monitor in the reactor core, made highly radioactive by neutron flux. It had been accidentally sheared off while a capsule was being closed in 2006. It sank to a remote corner of the pool, where it sat unnoticed for four years.
原来这根管子是反应堆核心中辐射监测器上的一根保护管，长时间的中子流使得它具有高度放射性。在2006年一个舱室关闭时它意外地脱落了下来，然后就沉到了燃料池底部一个不起眼的小角落，之后的4年里也一直没有被发现。
The tubing was so radioactive that if he 8217;d tucked it into a tool belt or shoulder bag, where it sat close to his body, he could 8217;ve been killed. As it was, the water protected him, and only his hand-a body part more resistant to radiation than the delicate internal organs-received a heavy dose.
要是这名潜水员把那根管子放到工具腰带或者背包里等靠近身体的地方的话，管子上的辐射物质足以使他丧命。正如前面所说的，水救了他一命，只有他的手——手比身体其他娇嫩的内脏器官更能承受辐射——受到了大剂量的辐射。
So, as far as swimming safety goes, the bottom line is that you 8217;d probably be OK, as long as you didn 8217;t dive to the bottom or pick up anything strange.
所以说，只要你按规矩在乏燃料池里游泳，你应该不会遇到问题，除非你潜到水底或捡了个奇怪的东西上来。
But just to be sure, I got in touch with a friend of mine who works at a research reactor, and asked him what he thought would happen to someone who tried to swim in their radiation containment pool.
为了确证，我联系了一位在研究用核电站工作的朋友，问他如果你试图在他们被辐射污染的池子里游泳会发生什么。
“In our reactor?” He thought about it for a moment. “You 8217;d die pretty quickly, before reaching the water, from gunshot wounds.”
“在我们这里？”他想了一会儿之后说道，“你会死得很快，甚至在你碰到水之前，警卫就一枪把你打死了。”
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