Quiz time! Review Obj #1-21 to get in the zone.

Read the board!

Field trip reminders! Meet in commons

8:15 Gone all day NO laptop Cell phone/camera Lunch and drink Notebook/pen Dress for weather

Folks staying here: Laptop for

classwork

Home Energy Audit DUE Friday Feb 27 Major Grade in Lab Notebook Show all work, use units Plan must be reasonable Furnace and hot water heater are natural

gas NOT electric!!!!

Reading your bill “kWh used” 2. Calculate how much CO2 your home

creates assuming the electricity is produced with 100% coal. 1 kWh of coal fired electricity creates 1.5# CO2.

#4. Energy Conservation Plan “How many kWh saved/month?” What if you changed some lightbulbs to

LEDs? 100w = 19w LED 75w = 13w LED 40w = 6w LED

Brainstorm – energy savings at home

Let’s continue with sustainable energy ideas! You’ll need paper

for notes.

What if . . . There was a power source with an

abundant fuel supply? A source that created no CO2 in generating

electricity?

What if . . . .

What if . . .that power was nuclear?

Comparison of coal vs. nuclear Coal Domestic fuel Combustion of coal =

CO2, SOx, NOx, particulates, Hg

Nuclear Domestic fuel No combustion = no

air pollutants Mining/processing/

transporting of fuel does create CO2

Waste products highly dangerous

Risk of nuclear accident

The fission reaction – interpret this diagram

Compare/contrast to WA Parish – “Lightwater” reactors

Controlling the chain reaction 1. Fuel is 97% U-238, only 3% U-235 2. Control rods stop movement of neutrons 3. Moderating fluid contains Boron

South Texas Project power plant

Photo slide show!

Reactor core & fuel rod assembly

Check for understanding Explain the fission reaction What is the difference between fission and

fusion? How is a nuclear power plant the same as

a coal-fired power plant? How is a nuclear power plant different

from a coal-fired power plant? How is moderating fluid used to control

the fission reaction?

Comparison of coal vs. nuclear Coal Domestic fuel Combustion of coal =

CO2, SOx, NOx, particulates, Hg

Nuclear Domestic fuel No combustion = no

air pollutants Mining/processing/

transporting of fuel does create CO2

Waste products highly dangerous

Risk of nuclear accident

Radiation – the dose makes the poison Background radiation from planet .1-.2/yr X-ray 1 rem Upper limit for job exposure 5 rems/yr 10 rem/incident – embryo show abnormalities 100/incident – probable leukemia 1,000/incident – nausea, harm to intestines,

death in 2 weeks 10,000/incident – coma, death in two days 100,000/incident – immediate death

104 Nuclear power plants in the US

Nuclear waste Low level waste High Level waste

Two kinds of nuclear waste Low level waste

Protective gear X-ray wastes Medical wastes Stored in near-

surface waste facilities

Remains radioactive about 100 years

Management of low level waste

Management of low level waste – Andrews county Texas to accept waste from 36 states

Second kind of nuclear waste

High Level waste Radioactive 10,000

years Spent fuel rods Currently stored on-

site in the US

How long will it remain dangerous? High Level waste

Radioactive 10,000 years

Spent fuel rods Currently stored on-site

Half-life: the amount of time required for half of the nuclei in a radioisotope to emit its radiation.

Potassium-42 12hrs Iodine-131 8 days Strontium-90 28 yrs Carbon-14 5,370 yrs U-235 710 million yrs U-238 4.5 billion yrs

Half life – how long will it last? Iodine-131 (8 days) If you had 1kg of

Iodine-131, how much radioactive material would you have in 32 days?

Radioactive decay of Uranium

104 Nuclear reactors (at 65 sites)in the US

Yucca Mountain, Nevada – cancelled project

Alternatives? Develop reactors that use 99.9% of fuels –

“4th generation” reactors – won’t be ready until 2030

****Big need for engineers and creative thinkers!!!

Alternatives? Reprocessing – France shut last coal

power plant in 2004. 56 nuclear reactors. Reprocessed fuel is used again; waste is stored in chunks of glass in stainless steel containers a few meters underground and loses radioactivity quickly.

Recovers 25% unused Uranium and Plutonium

Reduces volume of waste to 20% of original volume

NUCLEAR ACCIDENTSOne nuclear accident can really ruin your whole day.

Three Mile Island 1979 Pennsylvania Mechanical and

human failure Lost coolant water,

only partial meltdown

104 Nuclear power plants in the US – possible fallout effects

Chernobyl April 26, 1986 Human error led to meltdown 116,000 people evacuated Area the size of Florida contaminated Cesium 137 and Iodine 131 released –

reactive carcinogen Thyroid cancer rates in children in Belarus

are 100 times higher than preaccident levels

FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI

Fukushima Daiichi Tsunami of March 11, 2011 destabilized plant Full meltdown in three reactors due to

inability to cool reactor cores Seawater used to cool cores, ruined reactors;

loss of moderating fluid Released about 1/10 of radioactive material

as Chernobyl (Cesium-137) Japanese still concerned about food supply

(US fisheries?) 20 km exclusion zone currently in place

Current Fukishima status (CNN: Some residents to 'come home' to Fukushima nuclear disaster zone 2/24/14)

April 1, some 350 people from the Miyakoji district of Tamura city will be allowed to head back to their homes permanently, according to the country's Reconstruction Agency. Some 31,000 people could eventually return home, it added.

The government says about 138,000 Fukushima residents are still living in temporary accommodation.

Areas are declared suitable for habitation if residents are exposed to a maximum of 20 millisieverts of radiation per year. Officials have said they would like to get radiation exposure down to one millisievert a year.

The containment effort at the wrecked Fukushima-Daichi plant has been beset by problems, with regular reports of leaks of contaminated material. Last week, an estimated 100 metric tons of highly contaminated water flowed over a barrier around a containment tank and is being absorbed into the ground, plant operators, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), said in a statement -- though it denied there was any leakage into the nearby Pacific Ocean.

National Geographic returns to Chernobyl national geographic video