The answers to the worksheet questions are below:
The Eyes of Nye
Nuclear Energy
1. What are the three main sections
of a nuclear power plant?
Reactor, Generator, Cooling Towers
2. What starts the nuclear
chain reaction?
Uranium is bombarded by neutrons
3. What does fission mean?
To split apart an atom
4. What two products are
formed from the fission of uranium?
Energy as Heat
Shoots out another neutron
5. How much nuclear waste is produced in 60 years of a power plant operating?
Enough waste to fit into a convenience store
6. How much waste would a
coal plant produce?
Ten million times more waste
7. Where are most of the
nuclear waste and spent fuel rods currently?
In reactor pools at the nuclear plant
8. What is the estimate for
how long it takes nuclear waste to completely decay?
10 000 years
9. What materials are used to
shield or block nuclear radiation?
Stainless steel, concrete
10. Why is Yucca Mountain such
an attractive location for nuclear waste storage?
a. Dry site
b. Remote
c. Stable rock formation
11. What is the half-life of
Plutonium, part of nuclear waste?
24 000 years
12. Why was the 10,000 year
standard ruled invalid?
Plutonium would still be very dangerous at 10 000 years.
13. Give two positive and
negative arguments involving the usage of nuclear energy.
No deaths in accidents in 50 years
20% of US energy production
Can be used by terrorists
Disposal is expensive
14. How much total nuclear
waste exists worldwide?
300 000 tons
15. What are two other ideas
for dealing with nuclear waste?
Burying under oceans or under remote islands,
drop into Earth’s crust, bury in polar ice caps
16. Why can’t the nuclear
waste be shot into space?
An accident would cause a nuclear disaster
An accident would cause a nuclear disaster
17. Describe transmutation.
A method of changing a dangerous radioactive substance into a less dangerous one that will decay in a few hundred years
A method of changing a dangerous radioactive substance into a less dangerous one that will decay in a few hundred years
Awesomeee
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