Nuclear Energy Quiz

What do you Really Know About Nuclear Power?

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1. Which isotopes are fissile? (capable of undergoing nuclear fission) Select all that are true. *

a. Uranium 235
b. Uranium 238
c. Uranium 233
d. Thorium 232
e. Plutonium 239

2. How many people have been killed in the United States by civilian power reactors? Select one. *

a. 100 or more
b. 10 or more
c. 5 or more
d. 0

3. How many people have gotten radiation sickness in the U.S. from the operation of civilian power reactors? Select one. *

a. 100 or more
b. 10 or more
c. 5 or more
d. 0

4. How much radiation do nuclear reactors emit compared with equivalent sized coal-fired power plants? Select one *

a. 100 times as much or more
b. 10 times as much
c. The same amount
d. 10 times less
e. 100 times or more less

5. What happens to nuclear waste from power reactors? Select all that are true. *

It is disposed of uncontained in public dumps.
It is disposed of in cooling ponds where the radioactivity begins to abate.
c. It is stored in steel and concrete casks on site.
d. It is stored in a government controlled waste storage facility.

6. What is the most dangerous radiation on earth i.e., causes most deaths? Select one *

a. Cosmic radiation from space
b. Radioactivity from isotopes contained in the earth’s crust
c. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun
d. Radioactivity from stored nuclear power plant wastes?

7. How do the energies from burning hydrocarbons compare with nuclear reactions? Combining two oxygen atoms with one carbon atoms produces about 2 electron volts. One nuclear fission produces how much energy? Select one. *

a. The same amount of energy
b. 10 times as much energy
c. 1,000,000 times as much energy
d. 100,000,000 times as much energy

8. Nuclear power is actually “greener” than large-scale wind or solar. *

True
False

9. The solid uranium fueled, water cooled, reactor we have today is an optimum design. *

True
False

10. A molten salt, Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) would produce less than 1.0 % of the waste today’s solid uranium fueled, water cooled reactor produces. *

True
False

11. A molten salt, Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor(LFTR) would cost much less to build than either a conventional solid fueled reactor or a wind farm with equivalent output. *

True
False

12. A conventional solid fueled, water cooled reactor or a wind farm with equivalent output has a smaller footprint than a LFTR would have. *

True
False

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