Name: 這座城鎮有三座核電廠，現在還想要蓋第四座！ (This town has three nuclear plants. Now it wants another one)
Uploaded: 2025-12-23T16:55:37.000Z
Duration: 13 min 14 s

程度副詞

It's a very small, very snowy town on Lake Ontario with a population of 17,000.

這是一個非常小、非常雪白、位於安大略湖畔、人口有17,000人的小鎮。

They have a movie theater, a children's museum, a flower shop, and

他們有一個電影院、一個兒童博物館、一家花店，還有

three nuclear power plants within 10 miles.

I think our residents overwhelmingly will support a fourth nuclear power plant.

我認為我們鎮上的居民絕大多數都會支持蓋第四座核能發電廠。

So here in New York, Governor Hochul recently announced plans to build a new nuclear reactor upstate.

所以在紐約這裡，州長霍赫爾最近宣佈了要在北部地區蓋一座新的核反應爐的計畫。

And a big part of the reason why is the increased need in electricity from AI and data centers.

而其中一個很重要的原因就是AI和資料中心對電力的需求越來越大。

Harnessing the power of the atom is the best way to generate steady zero emission electricity.

利用原子的力量是產生穩定零排放電力的最佳方式。

Nuclear energy has come up as one of the potential solutions because it can deliver a huge amount of electricity 24 hours a day and without producing greenhouse gas emissions.

核能被提出來作為其中一個潛在的解決方案，因為它一天24小時都能提供大量的電力，而且不會產生溫室氣體排放。

But a lot of people are nervous about having nuclear in their area.

但很多人對他們地區有核能感到緊張。

Disasters like Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima Daiichi dominate the public imagination of nuclear power.

Three Mile Island、Chernobyl 和 Fukushima Daiichi 等災難主導了公眾對核能的想像。

As much as I loved watching the Simpsons growing up, a lot of what they show on the screen is not what reality is.

雖然我小時候很喜歡看《The Simpsons》，但螢幕上呈現的很多內容都與現實不符。

But there are a lot of challenges for building nuclear in the US So I'm headed to Oswego to find out more about why this town wants another nuclear power plant and what would happen next if it got one.

但要在美國蓋核能有許多挑戰，所以我前往 Oswego，想更瞭解這個鎮為何想要另一座核能發電廠，以及如果蓋了之後會發生什麼事。

Personally, I wasn't sure I'd be comfortable having nuclear power so close.

老實說，我不太確定自己是否能接受離家這麼近的地方有核能發電。

So I met with the mayor of Oswego to ask why nuclear power has been so great for this small town and why it doesn't bother him.

所以我去拜訪了 Oswego 的市長，問他為何核能對這個小鎮如此重要，以及為何他對此並不擔心。

Oswego, I mean, if you're from here, you kind of let it roll.

Oswego，我是說，如果你是這裡的人，你會習慣的。

I'm a lifelong resident of the city of Oswego.

Mayor Cordino is pushing for Oswego to get its fourth nuclear power plant, largely because of the economic benefits it would bring.

Cordino 市長正積極推動 Oswego 建立第四座核能發電廠，這主要是因為它能帶來經濟效益。

Most people can say that they either know somebody who works at the plant plants or they work there themselves.

大多數人都可以說，他們認識在核能發電廠工作的人，或是他們自己就在那裡工作。

100 years ago or so, the city of Oswego was a huge port here on the Great Lake Ontario.

大約一百年前，Oswego 市曾是安大略湖上一個重要的港口。

A lot of jobs that were concentrated in industry and manufacturing.

許多工作都集中在工業和製造業。

And over the course of time, that's changed.

隨著時間的推移，情況已經改變了。

Now our nuclear industry is our number one, number one employer.

現在我們的核能產業是我們最重要的僱主。

I believe it's probably close to 3,000 employees.

Nuclear power can be a godsend in towns like Oswego.

對像 Oswego 這樣的城鎮來說，核能發電真的是天賜之物。

Not only does it provide jobs, it provides really good jobs.

它不只提供工作，還提供非常好的工作。

There's thousands of construction jobs that will come with each build.

每次興建都會帶來數千個建築工作。

And then every 18 months or two years, depending on reactors, and

然後每隔十八個月到兩年，視核反應爐而定，

you bring in hundreds of specialized employees to do the maintenance, the refuelings.

你會引進數百名專業員工來進行維護、燃料更換。

Patrick works for Holtec, a company that designs and builds nuclear reactors.

Patrick 在 Holtec 工作，這是一家設計和建造核反應爐的公司。

He tells me the average salary for workers on these plants is around 100,000 a year.

他告訴我，這些核電廠工人的平均年薪約為十萬元。

Compare those to the other jobs in most of those communities.

把這些跟大多數社區裡的其他工作比較一下。

It's nuclear is always going to be on the high end, and

核能的薪資總是會處於較高水平，而且

of course no one would want that in their own backyard.

當然沒有人希望自家後院有這些。

但話說回來，這就是生活的一部分。

人們可以住在任何他們想住的地方。

It's like anything, you know, you get used to it.

就像任何事一樣，你習慣了就好。

You can just see the steam from the water tower peeking out over all these houses, over all these trees.

你可以看到水塔的蒸氣從這些房屋、這些樹木上方探出來。

I feel like it is important to note that is steam, not smoke.

我覺得很重要的一點是，那是蒸氣，不是煙。

I feel like it looks like a smokestack, but

我覺得它看起來像個煙囪，但是

that's a water cooling tower, so that's steam coming out of the top.

那是水冷卻塔，所以從頂部出來的是蒸氣。

So that there is the water cooling tower for Nine Mile Point Unit 2, one of the three nuclear power plants they've had here in Oswego county since the 70s.

所以這就是 Nine Mile Point Unit 2 的水冷卻塔，這是他們自 70 年代以來在 Oswego 郡擁有的三座核能發電廠之一。

And it's not unusual that these nuclear reactors are so old.

這些核反應爐這麼老其實不奇怪。

In fact, many of the US's nuclear reactors were built in the 60s and 70s.

事實上，美國的許多核反應爐都是在 60 年代和 70 年代建造的。

After World War II, basically, in the aftermath of the use of nuclear weapons, there was this push to try to see could we harness this immensely powerful force for peace.

第二次世界大戰後，基本上，在核武器使用之後，出現了一股推動力，想看看我們能否利用這股極其強大的力量來實現和平。

And so in the 60s and the 70s, we started seeing a proliferation of nuclear reactors across the country.

所以在 60 年代和 70 年代，我們開始看到核反應爐在全國各地激增。

In that timeframe, the risks of nuclear also started to become more present in the public mind.

在那段時期，核能的風險也開始越來越多地出現在公眾的意識中。

You know, I think the Three Mile island incident in Pennsylvania, which triggered a partial reactor meltdown, that kind of soured a lot of Americans on nuclear.

你知道，我認為賓州的 Three Mile Island 事件，引發了部分核反應爐熔毀，這讓很多美國人對核能感到卻步。

So as people got concerned about safety, more regulations got imposed on nuclear power plants and they had to basically meet a higher bar for construction, and

所以隨著人們對安全性的擔憂，核能發電廠受到了更多監管，它們在建造上必須達到更高的標準，

Then in the 80s, one of the big things that happened was that interest rates went up.

所以到了 80 年代，發生的一件大事就是利率開始上漲。

The reason why that's a really big concern for nuclear is that nuclear has very high upfront costs.

這對核能來說是個大問題，因為核能的初期成本非常高。

What that means is that for nuclear energy developers, they had to borrow money at a very high expensive rate from banks in order to finance the construction of nuclear reactors on top of the high interest rates.

這意味著，核能開發商必須以非常高的利率向銀行借錢，來為核反應爐的建造融資，再加上高利率。

In 1986, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded, which led to countless thousands of deaths and changed the public imagination of nuclear power forever.

1986 年，烏克蘭的 Chernobyl 核能發電廠爆炸，造成了數以萬計的死亡，永遠改變了公眾對核能的想像。

And so basically around the 80s, a nuclear reactor construction in the United States stopped.

所以基本上到了 80 年代，美國的核反應爐建造就停了下來。

The combination of High price and fear put the US behind the rest of the world in nuclear power.

高昂的價格和恐懼，讓美國在核能方面落後於世界其他國家。

For context, let's compare the US to France.

為了比較，我們來看看美國和法國。

In the US nuclear makes up 20% of our energy source.

在美國，核能佔我們能源來源的 20%。

In France, nuclear accounts for a whopping 70%.

而在法國，核能佔了驚人的 70%。

Another virtue for nuclear power plants is that it tends to be, on balance, one of the safest sources of electricity.

核能發電廠的另一個優點是，總體來說，它是最安全的電力來源之一。

Statistically speaking, the chances of nuclear disaster are actually quite slim.

統計上來說，核災發生的機率其實很低。

Working in nuclear is safer than working in coal, oil or gas.

在核能產業工作，比在煤炭、石油或天然氣產業工作還要安全。

That's because nuclear power plants don't pollute the air like fossil fuel plants do, which makes it safer for the workers as well as the residents who live in the area.

這是因為核能發電廠不像化石燃料電廠那樣汙染空氣，對工作人員以及住在附近的居民來說都更安全。

Spending time in Oswego, it started to feel like nuclear is a no brainer.

在奧斯威戈待了一段時間，感覺核能是個不需思考的選擇。

Of course, there are a lot of reasons why the residents of a town like Oswego might not want nuclear built in their backyard.

當然，像奧斯威戈這樣的城鎮居民，有很多理由不希望核能蓋在他們家附近。

For example, there are very real environmental concerns, largely stemming from the issue of nuclear waste.

例如，有非常真實的環境疑慮，這主要源於核廢料的問題。

Nuclear waste can stay hazardous for a very, very long time.

核廢料可能在非常非常長的時間內保持危險。

Most nuclear waste is stored in dry casks at the site of the nuclear power plant.

大多數核廢料都儲存在核能發電廠現場的乾式儲存桶裡。

This has been a fairly safe way to store nuclear energy waste, but

雖然這一直是儲存核能廢料的相對安全方式，但

it's never intended to be a permanent solution.

In 2021, concerns around nuclear waste and possible disasters pressured then Governor Andrew Cuomo to close Indian Point, a nuclear power plant just outside New York City.

2021年，由於對核廢料和潛在災難的擔憂，當時的州長Andrew Cuomo被迫關閉位於紐約市郊的Indian Point核能發電廠。

If we ever had a major problem at Indian Point, that might be a problem that we couldn't solve.

如果Indian Point發生重大問題，那可能是我們無法解決的問題。

Though it's worth noting that when Indian Point closed, the state replaced that energy output with plants that burn natural gas.

不過值得一提的是，Indian Point關閉後，州政府改用燃燒天然氣的發電廠來彌補能源產量。

Now, I know it looks like it's just me out here, but

好了，我知道看起來只有我一個人在這裡，但是

reporting stories like these takes a whole team.

報導像這樣的內容需要一個團隊。

Editors, reporters, fact checkers, animators, audio engineers, all working together to tell a story that's nuanced, accurate, and

編輯、記者、事實查核員、動畫師、音訊工程師，大家齊心協力，講述一個細膩、準確、而且

更重要的是，觀看起來很有趣的故事。

And if high quality independent journalism like this is important to you, then you would love our new Vox community on Patreon.

如果你認為像這樣高品質的獨立新聞很重要，那你一定會喜歡我們在Patreon上的新Vox社群。

For just $6 a month, you'll have a deeper and more direct way to experience our reporting and connect with our journalists.

每個月只要 6 美元，你就能更深入、更直接地體驗我們的報導，並與我們的記者交流。

And if you're a fan of our work, then you know it takes time, care, and real resources.

如果你是我們作品的粉絲，那你也知道這需要時間、用心和實際的資源。

Plus, you'll get a sneak peek to see new shows we're developing and a chance to tell producers like me what stories you're interested in seeing more of.

此外，你還能搶先看到我們正在開發的新節目，並有機會告訴像我這樣的製作人，你對哪些故事更感興趣。

Nuclear power plants are sort of like Goldilocks.

核能發電廠有點像童話故事裡面的金髮女孩。

They require a very specific set of circumstances.

Circumstances that do exist here in Oswego.

這些條件在奧斯威戈這裡確實存在。

You need to be close enough to a major city or factories to send the electricity, but

你需要離大城市或工廠夠近，以便輸送電力，但是

it needs to be isolated so that people feel safe.

它需要足夠隔離，讓大家感到安全。

And the area is secure but not too remote, because you need to be near a desirable residential area in order to draw a long term workforce.

而且這個區域要安全，但又不能太偏僻，因為你需要靠近一個理想的住宅區，才能吸引長期勞動力。

字幕列表影片播放

這座城鎮有三座核電廠，現在還想要蓋第四座！ (This town has three nuclear plants. Now it wants another one)

sort

potential

basically

scale