(英会話リスニングスクリプト)
Nuclear power's danger to health, safety,
and even life itself can be summed up I one word: radiation.
Nuclear radiation has a certain mystery
about it, partly because it cannot be detected by human
senses.
It can't be seen or heard or touched or
tasted, even though it may be all around us.
There are other things like that.
For example, radio waves are all around
us but we can't detect them or sense them without a radiation
receiver.
Similarly, we can't sense radioactivity
without a radiation detector.
But unlike common radio waves, nuclear radiation
is not harmless to human beings and other living things.
At very high levels, radiation can kill
an animal or human outright by killing masses of cells in
vital organs.
But even the lowest levels can do serious
damage.
There is no level of radiation that is completely
safe.
If the radiation does not hit anything important,
the damage may not be significant.
This is the case when only a few cells are
hit, and if they are killed outright your body will replace
the dead cells with healthy ones.
But if the few cells are only damaged, and
if they reproduce themselves in a deformed way, they can
grow into cancer.
Sometimes this cannot be detected for a
number of years.
This is another reason for some of the mystery
about nuclear radiation.
Serious damage can be done without the victim
being aware at the time that damage has occurred.
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