Chapter 17 notes[1]

[ ]Environmental Science Notes Outline

Electricity Generation

1. Define electric generator -

a. Fuel is burned to …_______________________________________________.

b. A turbine is a …__________________________________________________.

c. The energy from the turbine…________________________________________.

2. Label each part of this diagram:

3. Fossil fuels provide _______________ of all commercial energy in the world.

a. Of the rest, 9% is: ________________________

b. The last 6% is: ___________________________


4. Give the percent breakdown for each energy source used for electricity:

Source Percent of Electricity

5. How much energy does the average person in North America use?

a. How much do people in poor countries use?

b. One gigajoule of energy is equal to: __________________.

c. Three hundred gigajoules of energy is equal to: __________________.

6. Which country has the highest per capita energy use?

7. Which country has the lowest per capital energy use?

8. Make a pie graph showing how energy is used in the United States:


Efficiency

9. Electricity generation is very __________________.

10. Describe the three major ways that energy is lost as the electricity is generated.

a. _______________________________________________

b. _______________________________________________

c. _________________________________________________

Coal

11. What is coal made of?

a. How is coal created? Give the three steps:

i. Step one:

ii. Step two:

iii. Step three:

12. Coal has been used as far back as…

a. Why was coal needed for this civilization?

13. Demand increased when what happened?


14. Where is the only coal-fired power plant in Lake County?

a. This is our biggest producer of what pollutants?

15. How long should the current reserves of coal last, at current usage?


16. Where are the world’s coal reserves?

Coal Mining

17. About 40% of the coal is located ______________, while 60% is ________________.

a. What is a disease that can affect coal mine workers?

18. How much coal is burned in the U.S. every year?

a. List each of the pollutants released and what effect they have:

i.

ii.

iii.

iv.

Petroleum

19. What is petroleum made of?

20. What fuels are made from petroleum?

21. What other products are made from petroleum?

22. How much oil exists in reserves and remains to be discovered?


23. Where are the world’s oil reserves?

24. What are the two biggest oil exporters?

25. What is the world’s biggest oil importer?

26. What is the primary use for oil?

Natural Gas

27. How much of the world’s electricity is natural gas?

28. Give two reasons why natural gas is a better electricity source that oil or coal:

a.

b.

29. How many years supply of natural gas exist at current usage rates?

30. Where are the natural gas reserves located?


Nuclear Energy

31. Nuclear technology was developed first as a _________________.

32. Where were the two atomic bombs dropped during WWII?

a. What is the TNT equivalent of a nuclear bomb?

33. Explain what occurred during “Operation Crossroads.”

34. Why was the Castle Bravo nuclear test such a scandal?

35. What treaty was signed soon after the Castle Bravo explosion?

36. President ____________________ gave a speech in 1958 called ___________________.

a. What was the purpose of this speech?

37. Many believed that nuclear technology would provide electric energy _______________

________________________.

38. Between 1970-1974, how many reactors were ordered?

a. How many actually were built?

39. Which state has the most nuclear reactors?

40. How many operational power plants are located in Illinois?


41. The most commonly used fuel is ______________.

a. How much of naturally-occuring uranium is this isotope?

b. How much is needed to create a fuel pellet?

c. How big is the fuel pellet?

42. Give the steps of the nuclear chain reaction:

a. _______________________________________________________________

b. _______________________________________________________________

i. What does this step release?

c. _______________________________________________________________


Uranium

43. One uranium fuel pellet has the equivalent of:

a. Coal:

b. Oil:

c. Natural gas:


Nuclear Fission

Nuclear Waste

44. Why is nuclear waste so dangerous?

45. The radioactivity of all nuclear waste ______________ with time.

46. Define half-life :


47. Define fuel rod –

48. Define fuel assembly –

49. Define reactor core –

50. What is the purpose of the moderator solution?

a. What are the most common moderators?

51. What is the purpose of control rods?

a. What are control rods usually made of?

52. Describe the three steps for producing electricity using a pressurized water reactor (PWR)

a.


b.

c.

53. What materials are used as containment for nuclear reactors?

54. The containment vessel must be able to protect against two possible problems:

a.

b.

Nuclear Meltdown

55. What is a nuclear meltdown?

56. Give the three steps of the meltdown process.

a.

b.

c.

China Syndrome

57. What was the basis of the plot of the China Syndrome movie?

58. What exactly is “the China Syndrome”?

59. Why is it impossible for the China Syndrome to actually occur?

a.

b.

Three Mile Island

60. What caused the accident at this nuclear power plant?


61. What were the effects?

62. What three things changed as a result of Three Mile Island?

a.

b.

c.

Chernobyl

63. Where is the Chernobyl reactor located?

64. What is the unit of measurement of radiation used in the Soviet Union?

a. What is a lethal dose?

b. What is normal background radiation?

65. What are the short-term effects of radiation sickness?

66. What are the long-term effects of radiation sickness?

67. Why is internal exposure more dangerous than external exposure?


a. How can internal exposure happen?

68. Describe each step of the Chernobyl meltdown:

a. What was the purpose of the test? What were the Soviets worried about?

b. What was done with the control rods?

c. What happened after that?

d. When this was detected, what happened?

e. What was the result of the design flaw of the control rods?

f. What was the final result?

69. What are the two main health effects seen as a result of the nuclear fallout from Chernobyl?

70. What is low-level nuclear waste?

a. How much of it is stored in the U.S.?

71. What is high-level nuclear waste?

a. How much of it is stored in the U.S.?

72. Where was the Department of Energy planning on storing the nuclear waste?

a. Why were these plans halted?

Chapter 17 notes[1]

Documents

energy source

electric energy

gigajoule of energy

commercial energy

gigajoules of energy

capital energy use

worlds coal reserves

nuclear reactors