Deck 19: Conventional Energy

Question 1

_____________ is the most rapidly growing energy source.

A)Methane
B)Natural gas
C)Nuclear power
D)Coal
E)Oil

Answer 1

Natural gas

Question 2

Coal replaced wood as industrialized countries' major energy source in the nineteenth century because

A)Coal was easier to transport
B)Coal was a cleaner fuel
C)Early conservationists warned about the loss of biodiversity in the forests
D)Wood is not as energy efficient as coal
E)Wood supplies were diminishing

Answer 2

Wood supplies were diminishing

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT a drawback of burning coal for electricity?

A)Coal reserves in the U.S.are plentiful.
B)Much of the coal mined is through mountain top removal and valley fill, which leads to major environmental problems near the mine sites.
C)When burned, coal gives off a high amount of sulfur compounds and mercury.
D)Toxic coal ash much be stored indefinitely.

Answer 3

Coal reserves in the U.S.are plentiful.

Question 4

Currently the most common way to extract natural gas is by __________.

A)Collecting it from abandoned deep mines
B)Hydraulic fracturing
C)Separating it from crude oil pockets
D)Collecting it from deep ocean thermal vents

Question 5

The chemical industry is the second-largest industrial consumer of fossil fuels with ________ used for energy generation and ____________ used for raw materials in manufacturing.

A)Half; half
B)Three quarters; one quarter
C)One quarter; three quarters
D)One third; two thirds
E)Two thirds; one third

Question 6

Norway, Denmark, and Japan have higher standards of living by most measures than America.

A)Because their energy consumption is much greater
B)Because they are closer to energy supplies
C)Even though their energy use is about equal to ours
D)Even though their energy use is about half as much as ours
E)Because they don't use any fossil fuels

Question 7

Under normal operating conditions _______________ power plants release radioactivity as well as toxic metals.

A)Coal-fired
B)Hydroelectric
C)Nuclear
D)Wind-generated
E)All of these are correct

Question 8

In the process of getting energy to power your television, which of the following stages is the most energy efficient?

A)Mining the coal to run the power plant
B)Burning the coal to run the power plant
C)Thermal conversion of the energy from coal in the power plant
D)Transmission to your house
E)Actually powering your television set

Question 9

The application of force over distance is known as

A)Power
B)Work
C)Fuels
D)Energy
E)None of these is correct

Question 10

Most useful oil deposits are usually found

A)In a liquid pool under a layer of impermeable shale
B)Saturating porous rocks, like water in a sponge
C)Locked in the mineral structure of a rock formation
D)In pools on the earth's surface, where geologic pressures have forced them to collect
E)In small pools directly above the bedrock

Question 11

Oil wells are usually able to extract ______ of the petroleum present in an oil reservoir.

A)All
B)About 90 percent
C)About 75 percent
D)30 to 40 percent
E)Less than 10 percent

Question 12

Power is the

A)Rate of energy delivery (work done per second)
B)Amount of energy available
C)Capacity to do work (force over distance)
D)Combination of the rate of energy delivery, amount of energy available, and the capacity to do work
E)Amount of work done when a force of one newton is exerted over one meter

Question 13

Oil shale and tar sands are examples of ________ oil.

A)Unrecoverable
B)Unproven
C)Unknown
D)Unconventional
E)Recoverable

Question 14

One megawatt is equal to _________ watts.

A)100
B)1000
C)1 million
D)1 billion
E)1 trillion

Question 15

In order to extract kerogen, it must be ________.

A)Heated to 480 ^$\circ$ C
B)Removed by a salt/brine solution
C)Kept at a temperature of 25 ^$\circ$ C or below, or it will evaporate
D)Converted to a gas before it can be transported

Question 16

Which of the following is NOT considered a fossil fuel?

A)Coal
B)Natural gas
C)Oil
D)Charcoal
E)All of these are considered to be fossil fuels

Question 17

Worldwide, coal deposits are

A)Widespread but rarely in economic quantities
B)Relatively difficult to find
C)Highly unusual formations
D)Widespread and extensive
E)Decreasing at alarming rates

Question 18

The main pollutant released by coal burning is

A)Mercury vapor
B)Methane
C)Sulfur oxides
D)Volatile organic compounds
E)NOx

Question 19

Secondary recovery techniques are ways to

A)Force more oil out of a drying well
B)Extract new types of fuels from an empty well
C)Recover nonfuel materials from an oil well
D)Distill usable fuels from raw petroleum
E)Recover the oil that spills when an oil well gushes

Question 20

Black lung disease results from

A)The radioactivity in coal
B)The radioactivity around coal-fired power plants
C)Careless strip-mining methods
D)Coal dust literally filling lungs like dust in a vacuum cleaner bag
E)Coal dust causing inflammation and fibrosis in lungs

Question 21

The MOST likely disaster in a nuclear power plant is that

A)The plant would explode like a nuclear bomb
B)Cooling systems could fail, causing rapid overheating
C)Fuel rods could fail to maintain chain reactions
D)Nuclear fusion would get out of control and cause explosions
E)All of these are equally likely

Question 22

Workers in uranium mines have experienced extremely high incidence of

A)Strokes
B)Emphysema
C)Lung cancer
D)Black lung disease
E)Skin cancer

Question 23

Interest in nuclear power as a major world energy source

A)Was strong in the 1950s but has since faded
B)Gradually built to a peak in the 1980s and 1990s
C)Reached a peak of interest due to the Gulf War
D)Has been consistently low since it was invented
E)Is increasing because of its low cost

Question 24

According to the diagram, the number of plants in operation ______ in the early 1990s.

A)Increased sharply
B)Increased
C)Decreased sharply
D)Decreased
E)Leveled off

Question 25

Control rods in a nuclear reactor are used to

A)Absorb neutrons
B)Move fuel rods around in the chamber
C)Provide neutrons to initiate reactions
D)Provide cooling by decreasing the temperature of the water
E)Increase the temperature of the water

Question 26

Pressurized fluid and chemicals injected into a well are used in a mining process called _____________.

A)Placer mining
B)High pressure welling
C)Heap-leach extraction
D)Hydraulic fracturing

Question 27

One ____________ of natural gas is that it is ____________ than either coal or oil.

A)Disadvantage; harder to ship and store
B)Advantage; easier to build infrastructure for transporting it
C)Disadvantage; harder to sell
D)Advantage; easier to find
E)Disadvantage; less abundant

Question 28

Methane produced from animal waste or by digesting garbage is an example of a(n)

A)Conventional gas source
B)Unconventional gas resource
C)By-product of human activities
D)Nonrenewable energy source
E)Unconventional gas resource and a by-product of human activities

Question 29

Uranium fuel is ____________ before it can be put into a reactor.

A)Extensively processed to clean and purify it
B)Found in concentrated form in the Earth and then washed
C)Produced by bombarding it with electrons from radioactive plutonium
D)Extensively processed in order to change it to a safer form
E)None of these is correct

Question 30

A breeder reactor is designed to

A)Burn on multiple types of fuels, such as plutonium, uranium and thorium
B)Create fissionable plutonium from spent fission reactor fuel
C)Operate on a very small scale
D)Be safer than any other type of reactor
E)Be cooled with cadmium cooling rods

Question 31

The liquid sodium that must be used to cool a breeder reactor

A)Is explosive in contact with water
B)Burns intensely when exposed to oxygen
C)Is highly corrosive
D)All of these are correct
E)None of these is correct

Question 32

Hydraulic fracturing breaks what kind of rock layer to release methane?

A)Shale
B)Limestone
C)Granite
D)Slate

Question 33

What is the biggest drawback for developing oil shales, tar sands, and coal gasoline?

A)There are no drawbacks
B)Imports of these are extremely cheap
C)Availability of these resources
D)Cost

Question 34

A fuel assembly in a nuclear power plant consists of

A)Fuel pellets packed into a hollow rod
B)About one hundred pellet-filled rods bundled together
C)Fuel pellets arranged in a cube and encased in plastic
D)About a thousand fuel rods
E)Neutron-absorbing material such as cadmium

Question 35

The fuel used in a conventional PWR or BWR nuclear power plant is

A)Plutonium
B)Uranium
C)Thorium
D)Cadmium
E)Any one of these

Question 36

Why didn't the "plants in operation" curve in the diagram increase to the same level that the "plants on order" curve peaked?

A)Because of the increased concerns about reactor safety and waste disposal
B)Because some people were still supportive of nuclear power
C)Because nuclear power does not contribute to the greenhouse effect
D)Because there is a lag time between ordering and operating a nuclear plant
E)Because many utilities cancelled their orders

Question 37

Most nuclear plants in the United States use _________ to cool fuel rods and run turbines.

A)Pressurized air and water
B)Forced air
C)Freon, as in a refrigerator,
D)Pressurized water and steam
E)Liquid sodium

Question 38

Radioactive waste dumping in oceans has been

A)Considered by many governments but not carried out
B)Common worldwide until last year
C)Continued by the Soviet government until very recently
D)Banned worldwide since 1957
E)Proved to be safe because the wastes are sinking to very deep oceanic trenches

Question 39

What is the name of the shale basin that is located under much of the northern Appalachian Mountains?

A)Devonian Shale Basin
B)Barnett Shale Basin
C)Marcellus Shale Basin
D)Delaware Shale Basin

Question 40

Nuclear fission occurs when a high-energy subatomic particle, a neutron, strikes a uranium atom, releases energy, and

A)Breaks in half, causing another atom to break
B)Releases an electron in a gamma wave
C)Releases protons
D)Releases neutrons
E)Combines with another neutron to release even more energy

Question 41

Nuclear waste storage in the United States is currently handled

A)In temporary storage at individual plants
B)In a permanent storage depot managed by the federal government
C)By dumping at sea
D)By shipping overseas to Surinam and Venezuela
E)By dumping at sea and by shipping overseas to Surinam and Venezuela

Question 42

Improving the fuel economy of cars and light trucks in America would save more oil than is ever likely to be recovered from ANWR.

Question 43

Under normal operating conditions, you are likely to get a higher dose of radiation, living next to a nuclear plant than a coal-burning plant.

Question 44

Germany has decided to close all of its nuclear power plants and use _______________ instead.

A)Solar energy
B)Fossil fuels
C)Hydroelectricity
D)Geothermal power
E)Wind energy

Question 45

Yucca Mountain, Nevada is the site of

A)A proposed breeder reactor project
B)A proposed national nuclear waste repository
C)The most notorious radioactive leak in history
D)A leading nuclear free zone
E)A permanent nuclear storage depot managed by the federal government

Question 46

World coal reserves are substantially smaller than petroleum reserves.

Question 47

Fossil fuels currently supply about 50 percent of the world's commercial energy supplies.

Question 48

For much of the past decade, battles were going on over oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Question 49

Nuclear fusion is a(n) ____________ technology.

A)Proven and common
B)Ideal but so far unachievable
C)Technologically easy but publicly objectionable
D)Long-time standard
E)Clean, efficient, and relatively inexpensive

Question 50

A caller who wondered why no one was discussing nuclear power berated panelists discussing the problems of global warming on a radio show.How would you react to this caller? Make sure you provide at least three arguments that support your position.

Question 51

During a meltdown, nuclear power plants explode like a bomb, releasing huge amounts of radioactive material into the environment.

Question 52

Which of the following statements regarding nuclear energy is true?

A)In a nuclear power plant, electricity is collected directly from electrons splitting off from fuel atoms.
B)Nearly all nuclear power plants worldwide are built far from water sources to prevent contamination.
C)Decommissioning a nuclear power plant costs up to ten times as much as building it.
D)The Pressurized Water Reactor and the Boiling Water Reactor are essentially the two main designs for a nuclear power plant.
E)In a nuclear power plant, electricity is collected directly from the combination of electrons.

Question 53

Evaluate the costs and benefits (more than economic) of using coal, oil, and natural gas.In your evaluation, provide the pros and cons and the context in which each energy source would work best.