明けましておめでたうございます。今年もよろしくお願ひいたします。
2013年に横濱國立大學の後期入試で出題された3問中2題めの問題です。
次の英文を読み、下記の設問に日本語で答えなさい。
There is a phenomenon called the “Concorde mistake.” Part-way through its development it became clear that the Concorde supersonic* passenger plane, jointly developed by Britain and France, would not recoup* its costs in operation. But, as they did not want to waste the substantial funds already committed, both the British and French agencies continued its development. Concorde commenced* operations in 1976. It was continually in the red, and in 2003 it was taken out of service.
In this case, the correct decision would have been to halt the project at the point they found out that it would be perpetually* loss-making. But people find it hard to make these kinds of decisions. This is called (1)the “Concorde effect,” and it has become a research theme in behavioural economics*.
I get the feeling from the nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima No. 1 power plant that Japan may have committed (2)the same mistake in its nuclear policy.
Previously, nuclear power was advertised as a cheap alternative to fossil fuels*. But critics said that there was still no established way to finally dispose of nuclear waste and, if you factor in* that cost, it becomes very expensive.
It appears that the people of the “nuclear village” were optimistic that they could find a solution to the problem of nuclear waste. But half a century has elapsed* since Japan’s first commercial reactor* opened for business and there is still no solution for the disposal of nuclear waste. Far from it, a terrible “level 7” accident has occurred.
According to the report of an investigative committee on Tepco’s finances and management, damages owed as a result of the accident are estimated to reach \4.5 trillion* by March 2013. It is not known how far these costs will finally balloon*. This is equivalent to the final destruction of the idea of low-cost nuclear power.
(3)Even supposing that such a serious accident were never to happen again, we have to manage the nuclear waste for hundreds of thousands of years, no matter the waste disposal method, and that cost is unimaginable. In the long term we will probably have no choice but to end the “Concorde” of nuclear power. [364 words]
[Louis Barson, “The Concorde mistake,” The Japan Times, December 19th 2011]
*を付した語句については下記の説明を参考にしなさい（アルファベット順）。
balloon: to become larger in amount
behavioural economics: 行動経済学
commence: to begin
elapse: to pass away
factor in: to include a particular thing in your calculations
fossil fuel: 化石燃料
perpetual: permanent
reactor: a large machine that produces nuclear energy
recoup: to get back
supersonic: faster than the speed of sound
trillion: 1,000,000,000,000
設問
1. 下線部(1)はどのようなことを指すか。本文に即して述べなさい。
2. 下線部(2)について、その具体例を本文に即して詳しく説明しなさい。
3. 下線部(3)を訳しなさい。
【パート分け】
この問題につきましては三つのパートに分けて解説をして參ります。
パート 1： There is a phenomenon ～
パート 2： I get the feeling ～
パート 3： According to the report ～
