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Small and safe is the vision, at least. Dozens of companies and labs in the U.S. and abroad are pursuing it. [qh]
至少，微小安全是我们的愿景。美国以及国外数十家公司和实验室都在追求这一愿景。[qh]
Kairos is well along, with a permit to build a full-fledged nuclear test reactor already moving toward federal approval, hopefully by the end of 2023. [qh]
卡伊洛斯电力公司进展顺利，建造一个成熟完备的核试验反应堆的许可已经在向联邦政府申请，希望能在2023年底之前获得批准。[qh]
That test will depend on this one in Albuquerque, because molten-salt reactor cooling has not been tried in the United States since the 1960s, when a five-year experiment at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in Tennessee, proved the idea viable.[qh]
能否获批将取决于阿尔伯克基的这次试验，因为自20世纪60年代以来，美国还没有尝试过熔盐反应堆冷却。那时，田纳西州橡树岭国家实验室进行了为期五年的实验，证明了这一想法的可行性。[qh]
In a few days, the test unit’s top will be installed, crowning the device with bristling pipes and sensors. [qh]
没过几天，测试装置的顶部就安装好了，顶部安装了竖立的管道与传感器。[qh]
Nearby, welders ready those pipes and valves. [qh]
不远处，焊工们正在准备那些管道和阀门。[qh]
Engineers stand on top of scaffolding slotting graphite reflectors into place.[qh]
工程师们站在脚手架的顶部，将石墨反射器插入指定位置。[qh]
As I tour the facility, however, I soon realize that the crucial technology is not 16 feet tall but about 5 foot 6, balding, with jeans and thick, black-framed glasses. [qh]
然而，当我参观核电站时，我很快意识到，关键技术不是16英尺高的装置，而是约5英尺6英寸(约168厘米)高，秃顶，身着牛仔裤，戴着厚厚黑框眼镜的人。[qh]
John Muratore runs this test operation and, as you would expect, is an experienced engineer; as you might not expect, he is a space engineer, not a nuclear one.[qh]
约翰·穆拉托负责这项测试的运作，正如你所料，他是一位经验丰富的工程师; 但你可能想不到，他是一位太空工程师，而不是一位核工程师。[qh]
As a boy in the ’60s, he was the archetypal kid who built model planes and joined the rocketry club and never stopped daydreaming about human flight. [qh]
他是个典型的60年代的男孩，制作模型飞机，加入火箭俱乐部，从未停止过对人类飞行的幻想。 [qh]
He spent 24 years working for NASA, where he was a flight controller for the space-shuttle program under the legendary flight director Gene Kranz, of Apollo 13 movie fame. [qh]
他在美国国家航空航天局工作了24年，他在航天局是航天飞机项目的飞行管理员，在传奇飞行指挥员吉恩·克兰兹(他因《阿波罗13号》电影而成名)手下工作。[qh]
Then he spent a decade working for SpaceX, Elon Musk’s world-beating private spaceflight company.[qh]
之后，他在埃隆·马斯克的世界级私人航天公司SpaceX工作了10年。[qh]
Nuclear power wasn’t on his radar until recently, when Kairos’s executives called him for advice and wound up recruiting him. [qh]
直到最近，卡伊洛斯电力公司的高管们给他打电话征求建议，并最终将他招募到公司后，他才开始关注核能。[qh]
“A lot of it was the same,” he told me.[qh]
“很多都是相同的，”他告诉我。[qh]
“A launchpad and a nuclear reactor have a lot in common”—extreme temperatures, and many tons of concrete, and lots of pipes and valves and sensors and controls that must work together with extreme precision.[qh]
“发射台与核反应堆有很多共同之处”——极端高温、数吨混凝土、大量的管道、阀门、传感器与控制装置，它们都必须分毫不差地协同工作。[qh]
There’s another, more significant similarity: “The industry is hobbled by costs and schedule overruns, as was the launch industry prior to SpaceX.” [qh]
还有一个更重要的相似之处: “这个行业受到成本超支与进度超时的困扰，就像SpaceX之前的火箭发射行业一样。”[qh]
Managing complex projects—and bringing new vigor to old ideas—is something Muratore’s 40 years in the space industry have taught him a lot about.[qh]
管理复杂的项目——为老想法注入新活力——是穆拉托在航天工业40年的经历教会他的诸多东西之一。[qh]
