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Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered three meltdowns last year. Paired with hydrogen explosions, these meltdowns allowed radioactive material to escape. So what's the effect on the environment and human health?
去年日本福島第一核電站遭遇三次塌方事故。這次事件伴隨著氫氣爆炸，導(dǎo)致放射性物質(zhì)泄漏。那么這次事件對(duì)環(huán)境和人類(lèi)健康會(huì)造成什么影響呢？
The first clues come from what's called the pale grass blue butterfly. This delicate insect's wings change color and pattern in response to environmental changes.
第一條線索來(lái)自于 pale grass blue butterfly。由于環(huán)境變化，這些脆弱的蝴蝶發(fā)生了變異，翅膀的顏色和圖案均改變了。
The offspring of female butterflies caught in the Fukushima region six months after the meltdowns sported such color-pattern changes, as well as deformed legs, antennae, wings and even eyes. The deformities persisted and got worse in the second generation of offspring as well.
核泄漏事故六個(gè)月后，在福島附近捕捉的雌性蝴蝶的后代延續(xù)了這種顏色和圖案變化，同時(shí)腿部，觸角，翅膀，甚至是眼睛出現(xiàn)變形。這種變異不僅遺傳給第二代，而且情況變得更糟。
The same deformities were found in butterflies collected from the wild. And the researchers induced similar effects by exposing normal butterflies to radiation from cesium particles like those that escaped Fukushima Daiichi. The research is in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.
在野外收集到的蝴蝶也出現(xiàn)了相同的變異特征。研究人員通過(guò)將蝴蝶暴露在銫顆粒的輻射下來(lái)誘發(fā)類(lèi)似的效果。在福島核電站泄漏的放射材料就包括銫顆粒。這項(xiàng)研究發(fā)表在《自然科學(xué)報(bào)告》期刊上。
As for people, more than 3,000 individuals from a town 23 kilometers north of the stricken nuclear plant also bore detectable levels of radioactive cesium in their bodies. Their total dose of less than one milliSievert is considered safe, and no radiation sickness was observed. But, says a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the men, women and children exposed need to be watched for the long-term effects of the radiation—for the rest of their lives.
至于人類(lèi)，在受損核電站以北23公里的一個(gè)鎮(zhèn)上，3000多人體內(nèi)可以檢測(cè)到放射性銫。總輻射量低于1毫西弗的被視為安全，而且沒(méi)有觀察到任何疾病的癥狀。但是美國(guó)醫(yī)學(xué)會(huì)雜志刊登的一篇文章指出，應(yīng)該長(zhǎng)期觀察受到輻射影響的男女老少。
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