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Finally, as low- and middle-income countries develop over the next several decades, they will almost double the world’s demand for electricity. [qh]
最后，未来几十年，随着中低收入国家的发展，世界电力需求几乎会翻倍。[qh]
Total global energy consumption will rise by 30 percent by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency.[qh]
根据国际能源署的数据，到2050年，全球耗能总量将增长30%。[qh]
Meeting this challenge while reducing carbon emissions will be much harder, if not impossible, without a nuclear assist.[qh]
如果没有核援助(也并非没有可能)，在减少碳排放的同时应对这一挑战会困难得多。[qh]
Recognizing as much, three consecutive administrations—Barack Obama’s, Donald Trump’s, and now Joe Biden’s—have included next-generation nuclear power in their policy agenda. [qh]
认识到这一点，连续三届政府——巴拉克·奥巴马政府、唐纳德·特朗普政府以及现在的乔·拜登政府——都将新一代核能纳入了他们的政策议程。[qh]
Both parties in Congress support federal R&D funding, which has run into the billions in the past few years. [qh]
国会两党都同意提供联邦研发资金支持，在过去几年里，这笔资金已经达到了数十亿美元。[qh]
Two-thirds of the states have told the Associated Press they want to include nuclear power in their green-energy plans.[qh]
全美三分之二的州告诉美联社，他们希望将核能纳入绿色能源计划。[qh]
“Today the topic of new nuclear is front of mind for all our member utilities,” says Doug True, a senior vice president and the chief nuclear officer of the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry trade group.[qh]
工业贸易组织“核能研究所”的高级副总裁兼首席核能官道格·特鲁说: “今天，新核能的话题是我们所有公用事业公司成员的头等大事。”[qh]
“We have states saying, ‘Why can’t you build us a nuclear plant?’”[qh]
“有些州表示，‘你们为什么不能给我们建一座核电站?’”[qh]
So what is the main problem for the nuclear-power industry? In sum: the nuclear-power industry.[qh]
那么核能工业的主要问题是什么呢? 总而言之: 核能工业。[qh]
The U.S. has two big commercial reactors under construction, both at the same site in Georgia. [qh]
美国有两个大型商业反应堆正在建设中，都位于乔治亚州的同一地点。[qh]
The licensing process for them began in 2008; construction began in 2012, with a projected price of $14 billion and start-up planned for 2017 at the latest.[qh]
这两个反应堆于2008年开始走许可程序; 于2012年开建，预计耗资140亿美元，计划最晚于2017年启动。[qh]
As of February 2022, the projected cost had mushroomed to $30 billion, and the reactors still aren’t open. (Hopefully in 2023, the sponsoring utility says.)[qh]
截至2022年2月，预计成本已猛增至300亿美元，而反应堆仍未开启。(赞助公司表示，希望能在2023年开启。)[qh]
No one who knows the industry is surprised. [qh]
了解这个行业的人都不会感到惊讶。[qh]
In the United States, construction delays on the Georgia reactors and others drove Westinghouse, the company building them, into bankruptcy. [qh]
在美国，乔治亚州的反应堆以及其他反应堆的建设延误导致反应堆建造商“西屋电气公司”破产。[qh]
France started building a new reactor at its Flamanville plant in 2007, planning to open it in five years; as of this writing, it is still not ready. [qh]
2007年，法国开始在弗拉芒维尔电站建造了一座新反应堆，计划在五年内投入使用; 在撰写这篇文章时，该反应堆还未准备妥当。[qh]
Britain approved a major plant in 2008 and probably won’t turn it on until 2027, and the project is 50 percent over budget.[qh]
英国在2008年批准了一座大型核电站，很可能要到2027年才会启动，而该项目已经超出预算50%。[qh]
