Read: Using Wind Power in New Ways for an Old Application

1: How was the voyage of the Beluga SkySails different than traditional industrial ship voyages? Didnt use a set of fixed masts with traditional sails that had to be monitored constantly

Introduction to Alternative Energy Sources

2: Fossil fuels supply approximately 90% of the energy consumed by people

3: What are the two types of non-renewable alternative energy sources? Why are they considered to be non-renewable? Nonrenewable alternative energy Nuclear = requires a mineral fuel mined from Earth Geothermal = Heat is extracted faster than it is replenished 4: What is low-density, near-surface geothermal energy? A type of renewable energy 5: What are biofuels made from? Biomass such as wood and crops things like that 6: What is the definition of renewable energy? Renewable energy sources Solar, fresh water, wind, ocean, and biofuels, all derive from the suns energy

Solar Energy
7: How much solar energy is equal to the energy stored in an all known reserves of coal, oil and Natural gas on Earth? 10 weeks of solar energy equivalent to all known fossil fuel reserves 8: What are passive solar energy systems? Give an example. Promotes cooling in hot weather and retaining heat in cold weather, Walls in buildings that absorbs heat during the day and releases it at night 9: What are active solar energy systems? Give an example. Energy systems that require mechanical power, additional pumps move heat to location where energy is converted and used 10: What are solar collectors? What are they used for? How do they work? Provide space heating or hot water, Flat Plate Collector Flat, glass-covered plates over a black background where absorbing fluid is circulated through tubes

Evacuated tube collector Each tube filled with absorbing fluid pass through a larger tube 11: What are photovoltaic? What are they made out of? Explain how they work. Converts sunlight directly into electricity, made from thin layers of semiconductors and a solidstate electronic components with few or no moving parts 12: What are solar thermal generators? How do they work? Focus sunlight onto water-holding containers, Water boils and is used to run conventional steamdriven electrical generators 13: What are some of the environmental concerns of solar energy? Variety of metals, glass plastics, and fluids used in the manufacture and use of solar equipment Production and accidental spills could release toxic materials 14: What are fuel cells? How are they created? Hydrogen as power for fuel cells, Electric current separates water into hydrogen and oxygen, When H recombined with O, electrons flow between positive and negative poles

Water Power
15: Water power has been around since when? Since waterwheels where invented 16: How much power in the United States is currently powered by hydroelectricity? 80,000 MW 17: What is micro hydropower? Where is this helpful? Small scale hydropower systems designed for homes 18: What are the environmental benefits of hydroelectricity? Reduce high cost of importing electricity 19: What are the environmental consequences of hydroelectricity? Interference of freshwater ecosystems

Ocean Energy
20: Explain how we can harness tidal power. Dams were built, dams built across the entrance to a bay or estuary, water held in or out of bay until significant difference in level forces water in or out 21: What are some of the environmental impacts of tidal power? Changes hydrology of bay, Restricts passage of fish, Changes habitat for birds and other organisms

Wind Power
22: What is the major problem with using wind power? You have to be in area where it is windy 23: How are winds produced? Differential heating of Earths surface create air masses with differing heat contents and densities 24: How does topography influence winds? Explain. Affects the wind's direction, velocity and duration 25: Which regions in the United States have the greatest potential for wind power? Development? Pacific Northwest coastal area and the coastal region of the northeastern parts of the United States 26: Which country has the largest wind energy capacity installed? The United States 27: Modern wind turbines are big- as much as 70m high, as tall as a 23story Building, and have a generating capacity of more than 1watts. This is enough Electricity for 500 modern U.S. homes.

28: What are the disadvantages to wind power for the environment? Kills birds, Use large areas of land, May degrade areas scenic resources 29: What is the future outlook for wind energy generation? Wind energy one day might be a major supplier

Biofuels
30: What are the 3 categories of biofuels? Firewood, Organic wastes, Crops grown to be converted into liquid fuels 31: How many people worldwide still use wood as their primary source for energy? 1 billion people 32: What are some of the benefits of using biofuels? Reduced emissions of greenhouse gases 33: What are the environmental concerns with the using of biofuels? Can pollute the air and degrade the land, Worlds forests will decrease if our need for forest products and forest biomass fuel exceeds the productivity of the forests

Geothermal Energy
34: What are the two types of geothermal energy and how do they differ? Deep earth - high density Energy from interior of earth, May be considered nonrenewable when rates of extraction are greater than rates of natural replenishment Shallow earth - low density Solar energy that has traveled to shallow depths 35: How many people worldwide depend on geothermal as their energy source? 40 million people 36: What type of location is ideal for high-density geothermal energy? Give an example. Hot water transfers, Geysers and hot springs are a natural example of geothermal energy 37: Where is low-density geothermal energy mostly found? Why? In groundwater the reason for this is because groundwater are usually cool 38: What are the PROS and CONS of using geothermal energy? PRO renewable, doesn't require large scale transportation, doesn't produce atmospheric pollutants CON Considerable thermal pollution from hot wastewaters, Water may be saline or highly corrosive, On-site noise, Emissions of gas, Disturbance of land 39: What types of government incentives might encourage use of alternative energy sources? Would their widespread use affect our economic and social environment? Maybe lowering taxes and possibly making the white environmental safe by that I mean adding solar panels and things like that making the white house GREEN Chapter #17- Nuclear Energy and the Environment 1: How much of the worlds electricity do nuclear power plants provide? 17% of electricity 2: In the United States, nuclear power plants produce about 20% of the countries Electricity and about 8% of the total energy used. 3: The nuclear power plants in France provide 80% of the countrys total energy.

What is Nuclear Energy?

4: What is nuclear energy? Energy contained in the atoms nucleus

5: What is the difference between fission and fusion? Fission splitting of atomic nuclei Fusion fusing or combining of atomic nuclei 6: Nuclear reactors use (fusion or fission?) and which product as a source of Radioactivity? Nuclear reactors use fission and the product is uranium oxide. 7: Which type of Uranium is used for nuclear power plants? Uranium-238, Uranium-235, Uranium-234 8: What does it mean that the Uranium is enriched? Processing to increase concentration of U235 9: What is a nuclear meltdown? It is when the nuclear power plant coolant system fails or shuts down or just stops working 10: Reactors that use ordinary water as the coolant are called: moderators 11: Draw and label a diagram below to explain the nuclear power plant set-up:

A Closer Look: Radioactive Decay

12: What is a radioisotope? A chemical element that spontaneously undergoes radioactive decay 13: What is radioactive decay?

Radioisotope change from one isotope to another and emits one or more kinds of radiation

14: What is a half-life? What is the half-life of Uranium 235? Half-life is the time required/given, half-life of Uranium-235 is 700 million years 15: Define the following types of nuclear radiation: (Explain the safety measures needed when Using each) * Alpha Particle: a helium nucleus emitted by some radioactive substances, originally regarded as a ray * Beta Particle: a fast-moving electron emitted by radioactive decay of substances. (The emission of beta particles was originally regarded as a ray * Gamma Rays: emitted during radioactive decay processes such as those found in nuclear explosions 16: Uranium goes through a radioactive decay chain to finally become which element? Lead-206

Nuclear Energy and the Environment

17: What are the major problems associated with the nuclear fuel cycle? Exposes miners to radiation and radioactive waste must be carefully handled etc.

Nuclear Radiation in the Environment, and its Effects on Human Health

18: How does nuclear radiation effect ecosystems? Explain and give an example. Radiation can cause cancer ecological food chains; Fukushima nuclear meltdown left a permanent mark on the land and its ecosystem 19: Radiation is found naturally in what kind of materials? Give 2 examples. Soil and rocks, granite and shale 20: Where in the United States are background radiation levels higher? Florida radiation levels higher above average 21: In what ways are people exposed to radiation in their everyday lives? Cosmic rays, X-rays and flying on planes

A Closer Look: Radiation Units and Doses

22: What is the commonly used unit for radioactive decay? Who is it named after? Unit for decay is curie, named after Marie Curie 23: What is the SI unit for radioactive decay?

Becquerel

24: When dealing with the environmental effects of radiation, we are most interested in the Actual dose of radiation delivered by radioactivity. This dose is commonly measured in Terms of rads and rems. In the international system (SI), the units are grays and sieverts.

25: For gamma rays, the unit commonly used is the roentgen or in SI units, coulombs

26: What is the LD50 dose of radiation in humans? 5,000 27: What happened to the women who worked in the watch factories in the early 1900s? 50 msv maximum allowed dose for workers in the industry (30 times average natural background 28: What are the health effects for workers in uranium mines? Cancer

Nuclear Power Plant Accidents

29: What is the current risk of a nuclear meltdown in the U.S. according to the U.S. NUCLEAR? Regulatory Commission? Unacceptable Risk Sets performance goal for a single reactor at 0.01% (1 in 10,000 chance of core meltdown) if there were 1,500 plants a meltdown would be expected every seven years

Three-Mile Island
30: When did the event on Three-Mile Island occur? March 28, 1979 31: Where is Three-Mile Island located? Harrisburg, PA 32: What were some of the societal issues associated with the incident at Three-Mile Island? Major impact of the incident was fear

Chernobyl
33: Summarize the events at Chernobyl, Soviet Union Worst accident in history of nuclear power generation

Failure in cooling waters Reactor overheated melting the uranium fuel, Explosions removed top of building, and Fires produced a cloud of radioactive particles 34: How many people died and how many people were diagnosed with acute radiation Sickness? 237 people were diagnosed with acute radiation and 31 died 35: How many people were exposed to radiation in the days following the accident? 24,000 36: What was the most common type of illness that resulted from the Japanese A-bomb? Survivors? Leukemia 37: What was the most common type of illness that resulted from the Chernobyl accident? Thyroid cancer 38: What happened to the ecosystem around the affected area following the meltdown? 7 km had been killed or damaged and pine trees had extensive tissue damage and contained radioactivity

Radioactive-Waste Management
39: What is low-level radioactive waste? Where it is stored? Buried in near-surface burial areas, where geologic and hydrologic conditions thought to limit migration 40: What is transuranic waste? How is it created? Composed of human-made radioactive elements heavier than uranium, Plutonium, americium, and einsteinium 41: What is high-level radioactive waste? Where is it stored? Consists of commercial and military spent nuclear fuel, Uranium and plutonium derived from military reprocessing 42: What and where is Yucca Mountain? What was the plan with it? A place that was planned to bury nuclear waste in Nevada, plan was to dispose the waste deep underground the Mountain. 43: What are the safety hazards associated with using Yucca Mountain to store nuclear waste? Volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and changes in storage environments

The Future of Nuclear Energy

44: How much Uranium stores do we have left? 104 uranium stores left 45: What are the PROS and CONS of using Nuclear Power? Pro doesn't emit gases and would increase availability of fuel Con Nuclear power unlikely to have real impact on environmental problems, uranium ore to fuel conventional nuclear reactors limited 46: What are breeder reactors? Designed to produce new nuclear fuel, Transform waste or low-grade uranium into fissionable material, Future of nuclear power if sustainability of fuel an objective