Nuclear Energy
Read and complete the following
questions concerning nuclear energy
in the United States.
Nuclear Energy
1.Describe nuclear energy?
2.Describe the difference between fission and
fusion. Provide an example of each.
3.What’s a half-life? How is it measured?
4.What are the BENEFITS and DRAWBACKS to
nuclear energy?
Nuclear Waste
5.What is nuclear waste?
6.What are the issues concerning nuclear
waste?
7.What are possible solutions to the United
States nuclear waste problem?
Half-Life Problems
8. A sample of radioactive waste has a half-life of 10 years
and an activity level of 2 curies. After how many years will
the activity level of this sample be 0.25 curie?
9. Uranium-235 has a half-life of 710 million years. If it is
determined that a certain amount of stored U-235 will be
considered safe only when its radioactivity has dropped to
0.10 percent of the original level, approximately how
much time must the U-235 be stored securely to be safe?
10. Plutonium-239 has a half-life of 24,000 years. How long
will a sample need to be kept in safe storage before it
decays to a safe level (0.10)?
Half-Life Problems
11.
Half-Life Problems
12.
Half-Life Problems
13.
Nuclear Power Plants in USA
Yucca Mountain
Yucca Mountain, Nevada
14. Why was Yucca
Mountain chosen
as a possible
repository of
nuclear waste?
Examine the
location of nuclear
power sites in the
USA. (Previous
Slide)
Possible repository site for nuclear waste.
15. What potential
issues/hazards
may arise in
transporting the
nuclear waste to
Yucca Mountain.
Nuclear Disaster: Chernobyl, Russia
16. What are the
consequences of
radiation exposure?
Nuclear Disaster: Three Mile Island, PA
17. Explain what
happened.
Nuclear Disaster: Fukushima - 2011
Nuclear Disaster: Fukushima - 2011
18. Explain the relationship
between plate tectonics
and the nuclear disaster
at Fukushima.
Include:
• Names of plates
• Type of boundary