(单词翻译:单击)
Small and safe is the vision, at least. Dozens of companies and labs in the U.S. and abroad are pursuing it.
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。
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.
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。
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.
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。
In a few days, the test unit’s top will be installed, crowning the device with bristling pipes and sensors.
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。
Nearby, welders ready those pipes and valves.
不远处，焊工们正在准备那些管道和阀门。
Engineers stand on top of scaffolding slotting graphite reflectors into place.
工程师们站在脚手架的顶部，将石墨反射器插入指定位置。
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.
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。
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.
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。
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.
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。
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.
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。
Then he spent a decade working for SpaceX, Elon Musk’s world-beating private spaceflight company.
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。
Nuclear power wasn’t on his radar until recently, when Kairos’s executives called him for advice and wound up recruiting him.
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。
“A lot of it was the same,” he told me.
“很多都是相同的，”他告诉我。
“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.
“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。
There’s another, more significant similarity: “The industry is hobbled by costs and schedule overruns, as was the launch industry prior to SpaceX.”
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。”
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.
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。
