紐時賞析／美汙染最重核廢處理區 將轉型最大太陽能電場

Most Contaminated U.S. Nuclear Site Is Set to Be the LargestSolar Farm

美汙染最重核廢處理區 成最大太陽能電場

In the weeks since President Donald Trump has taken office, he has pushed to unleash oil and gas production and has signed executive orders halting the country’s transition to renewable energy.

自美國總統川普就職數周之後，他一直推動石油和天然氣生產，並簽署行政命令中止該國轉型使用可再生能源。

But in Washington state, a government-led effort has just started to build what is expected to be the country’s largest solar generating station. The project is finally inching forward, after decades of cleaning up radioactive and chemical waste in fits and starts, at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, a sweep of desert that was pivotal to the nation’s weapons arsenal from 1943 until it was shut down in 1989. A developer, Hecate, was brought on last year to turn big stretches of the site into solar farms.

但是在華盛頓州，一項由政府主導的艱難嘗試才剛剛開始，預計將建造全美最大太陽能電場。歷經數十年來斷斷續續的放射性和化學廢棄物清理工作，這項專案終於在漢福德核廢料處理場緩慢推進。漢福德核廢料處理場位於遼闊的沙漠之中，自1943年起一直是該國軍火庫的核心，直到1989年被關閉。開發商Hecate去年被招攬，負責將這座處理場的大片區域轉型成為太陽能發電場。

Hecate will have access to 10,300 acres that the government has determined sufficiently safe to redevelop. The company has already started site evaluation on 8,000 acres, enough space for 3.45 million photovoltaic panels. (Hanford’s site is nearly 400,000 acres.)

Hecate將有使用政府認定足夠安全可開發的約1萬300英畝（約52.6平方公里）土地的權利。該公司已開始對8000英畝的土地進行場址評估，這塊土地面積足以安裝345萬片太陽能光電板。（漢福德核廢料處理場占地近40萬英畝。）

If all goes according to plan, the Hecate project, which is expected to be completed in 2030, will be by far the largest site the government has cleaned up and converted from land that had been used for nuclear research, weapons and waste storage. It is expected to generate up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity — enough roughly to supply all the homes in Seattle, San Francisco and Denver — and store 2,000 more megawatts in a large battery installation at a total cost of $4 billion. The nation’s current biggest solar plant, the Copper Mountain Solar Facility in Nevada, can generate up to 802 megawatts of energy.

如果一切根據計畫進行，Hecate的專案預計在2030年之前完成。它將是美國政府截至目前為止將曾用於核子研究、武器和廢棄物儲存的土地清理並轉型後的最大規模位址。預計它將生產2000千瓩的電力–大致足以供應西雅圖、舊金山和丹佛所有家庭用電，並在總成本40億美元的大型電池設施中儲存另外2000千瓩的電力。美國目前最大的太陽能發電廠是內華達州銅山太陽能電場，能生產高達802千瓩的電力。

The big unknown still hanging over the plan is whether the Trump administration will thwart efforts that the Biden administration put in place to develop more clean electricity generation.

籠罩這個計畫的最大未知數是，川普政府是否會阻撓拜登政府為發展更多潔淨能源所安排的努力。

Two officials at the Energy Department, who asked not to be named for fear of retaliation, said that neither the president nor the leaders of the administration’s effort to reshape federal agencies had yet to intervene in the solar project, but that the future of the initiative was uncertain. One of the officials said the new energy secretary, Chris Wright, a former oil executive, had not yet reviewed the project as of late February.

擔心遭到報復而要求匿名的兩名能源部官員表示，無論是總統川普，還是負責重組聯邦機構的政府領導人尚未出手干預，但新措施的未來尚不確定。一名官員表示，新任能源部長、石油業前高管萊特截至2月下旬仍未審閱這項專案。

文／Keith Schneider　譯／羅方妤

說文解字看新聞

【張佑生】

中文「脫韁野馬」頗適合說明unleash的意象，一股強大的力量猛然獲得釋放。美國的石油天然氣蘊藏豐富，拜登政府為轉型至再生能源(transition to renewable energy)而抑制，川普重新鬆綁。跟保護環境相比，創造更多工作，轉換成選票更實在。擬人化的用法：The storm unleashed its fury.電影台詞「放狗咬人」，英文也有unleash (someone or something) on (someone or something)的說法，介詞on則可以換成against.

Inch當動詞使用指朝某特定方向緩慢移動，常接介詞或副詞：Gas prices are inching up again.或We inched along in heavy traffic.口語in/by fits and starts是斷斷續續：Technology advances by fits and starts.

華盛頓州冒著被視為跟聯邦政府作對的風險，開發全美最大太陽光電場(Solar PV Farm)，須注意太陽能和風力都是用電場(solar/wind farm)，與傳統的水力、火力或核能發電廠(power plant/station)不同。