Short Quiz

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johnkarls
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Joined: Fri Jun 29, 2007 8:43 pm

Short Quiz

Post by johnkarls »

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1. How big are nuclear-power reactors?

2. How much fuel is required for a nuclear-power reactor?

3. How much power is produced by the nuclear fission of one uranium atom, compared to the power produced in burning (aka oxidizing) the carbon in a single fossil-fuel molecule such as comprises coal, oil, gas, etc.?

4. How much greenhouse gas is produced by a nuclear electrical-generation plant? By a coal-fired electrical generation plant?

5. How much electricity is generated in the U.S. by nuclear power? Coal-fired plants? Hydro? Other?

6. How much electricity is generated in France by nuclear power?

7. What do the U.S. Department of Energy statistics say about the economic viability of nuclear power?

8. Of the three well-publicized nuclear-power accidents in the 50-plus years of nuclear electrical-power generation, what was the problem at Three-Mile-Island in Pennsylvania in 1979?

9. What was the problem at Chernobyl Ukraine in 1986?

10. What appear to have been the problems at Fukushima Daiichi?

11. Do thorium-powered nuclear plants need containment chambers such as those at uranium-powered commercial nuclear plants? (NB: Nuclear-powered American submarines and aircraft carriers do not have containment chambers, nor did the Soviet nuclear plant at Chernobyl.)

12. Do thorium-powered nuclear plants need elaborate water-cooling systems?

13. Why do spent uranium fuel rods pose a problem for U.S. uranium-powered nuclear plants? Why do the French NOT have spent fuel rods?

14. Do thorium-powered nuclear plants have waste problems?

15. Since thorium-powered nuclear plants are so much safer to operate, since they do not require containment chambers, since they do not require elaborate water-cooling systems, since they do not have significant nuclear-waste problems, since thorium is so plentiful/cheap, and since construction and operating costs of thorium-powered nuclear plants would be so much less than uranium-powered nuclear plants -- why did President Nixon order the nation’s nuclear-science laboratory at Oak Ridge to halt development of thorium-based nuclear power?

16. In addition to comprising a solution to global warming, would thorium-powered nuclear reactors eliminate our gaping international balance-of-payments deficit, and eliminate the political reliance of the U.S. and its allies on Middle East oil producers?

17. Are other countries as well as foreign-based multi-national companies racing to develop and implement thorium-based nuclear technology, leaving the U.S. in the dust?

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