# Energy questions: Nuclear and Hydropower

<span style="font-weight: bold;">Energy Questions: W20: Nuclear and Hydropower</span>

Please read:

- [Chapter 20:](https://elab.hpa.edu/apes/texts/Withgott7e%20v.2%20ocr/ch20ocr.pdf) Conventional energy alternatives (nuclear, biofuels, hydropower)

Please watch:

<span style="font-weight: bold;">Bozeman Science:</span>

[025 - Nuclear Energy](http://www.bozemanscience.com/ap-es-025-nuclear-energy)

[http://www.bozemanscience.com/ap-es-025-nuclear-energy](http://www.bozemanscience.com/ap-es-025-nuclear-energy)

[026 - Hydroelectric Power](http://www.bozemanscience.com/ap-es-026-hydroelectric-power)

[http://www.bozemanscience.com/ap-es-026-hydroelectric-power](http://www.bozemanscience.com/ap-es-026-hydroelectric-power)

1. Why is a log scale in stead of a linear scale useful for earthquakes and nuclear disasters?
2. How would you argue that nuclear energy should be promoted?
3. Why is water needed to keep the nuclear reaction going?
4. What happened to the control rods in each of the three major accidents?
5. Why did the Soviets give kids Iodine tablets just after the Chernobyl accident?
6. What two parts control the nuclear reaction?
7. What is thermal pollution, and what other plants produce it?
8. In the video, 250 kg of Radium decays. How much would be left after 9000 years?
9. Why is human error a part of each of the three disasters?
10. Hydroelectric power is “movement of water”. Does this always involve gravity in some sense?
11. Why do dams have a defined lifespan?
12. The great Aswan dam on the nile changed agriculture in a good and bad way. Explain.
13. How many villages were flooded to make the Three Gorges Dam in China?
14. Deep dams create mineral pollution-explain.
15. What are “mill tailings”, where are they, and what is their impact?
16. Make the argument for bad design as a cause of each of the three major nuclear accidents.
17. Where were nuclear reactors first used (hint: not on land), and why is this part of your reasoning for the question above?
18. Why is the EROEI for hydropower so high?

  

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