geology test 4
Worldwide, the number of permanent high-level radioactive waste disposal sites is
0
Which one of the following is not an advantage of solar energy?
It is a widely dispersed resource
In 1995, wind power accounted for what percentage of the electric generating capacity of the United States?
about 3
All of the following properties of the proposed Yucca Mountain (Nevada) high-level radioactive waste site contributed to its selection
absence of faults
Which of the following methods of treating contaminated ground water was not employed at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver, Colorado?
adjustment of pH
Which of the following substances would not contribute to the eutrophication of a body of water?
agricultural herbicide
The environmental disaster that has affected the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania was caused by
an underground coal-mine fire
Oil, natural gas, and coal are examples of
fossil fuels, hydrocarbon fuel, nonrenewable resources
Hydroelectric power
is economically competitive with other methods of generating electricity,supplies about 6% of all energy consumed worldwide, does not pollute the water flowing through the generating equipment.
The principal gaseous pollutants are oxides of all of the following elements except
lead
Acid rain would have a pH value
lower than 7
Pollution can affect weather conditions in which of the following ways?
making rain more acidic, reducing visibility, modifying air temperature
The radiation source responsible for the highest percentage of average radiation exposure for persons in the United States is
medical X rays
A toxic heavy metal that tends to accumulate in high concentrations in marine fishes at the top of the food chain is
mercury
Which of the following air pollutants has not shown a substantial reduction despite the imposition of air-quality and emissions standards by the Environmental Protection Agency?
nitrogen dioxide
All of the following are methods of reducing waste volume
ocean dumping
Which material makes up the largest percentage of municipal wastes?
paper
The principal factors in the formation of photochemical smog are high concentrations of nitrogen oxides and
strong sunlight
The substance found in coal that contributes to acid rainfall is
sulfur
In the atmosphere, sulfur dioxide combines with water vapor and oxygen to form
sulfuric acid
The use of catalytic converters to reduce automobile emissions can actually increase the emissions of nitrogen oxides and
sulfuric acid
All of the following are problems in the development of oil shale in the U.S. as a viable energy resource except
the low quality of the oil
In the United States, the greatest source of air pollutants is
transportation
A bedrock aquifer is overlain by three to four meters of sand and gravel. The vulnerability of this aquifer to pollution from surface-water infiltration can best be described as
high
In an aquatic system, the presence of noxious gases such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and methane (CH4) is associated with
oxygen depletion
The substance in the upper atmosphere that absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation is
ozone
Atmospheric lead concentrations declined between 1975 and 1982 in response to
reductions in the lead content of gasoline
Concerning the millions of industrial chemicals, complete toxicity assessments have been made for
relatively few of them
In the United States, most uranium deposits are found in
sandstone
Breeder reactors constitute what percentage of nuclear power plants in the United States?
0
Hydroelectric power provides about how much of the energy needs in US
4%
The bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis is used to
break down human wastes in sewage
The atmospheric gas that enhances the greenhouse effect heating of the atmosphere is
carbon dioxide
The largest recoverable U.S. energy reserve is
coal
Radioactive particles never release
cosmic rays
Superfund monies are intended to pay for
emergency cleanup of abandoned toxic waste sites
Which of the following elements has the longest estimated residence time in the atmosphere?
helium
A major limitation of hydroelectric power is that
it is limited to the stationary nature of streams
The United States has about two-thirds of the world's known resources of
oil shale
Often the only effective approach to restoring the quality of polluted bodies of water is to
reduce or stop the input of wastes and allow natural processes to remove or destroy the pollutants
An advantage of incineration waste disposal is the
reduction of waste volume
Which of the following elements has the longest oceanic residence time?
sodium
The pollution of ground water due to saltwater intrusion is a significant problem along the coast of
Texas
technological problems that must be solved before fusion reactors become a reality?
concentrating fuel nuclei at extremely high temperatures, containment of fusing nuclei, achieving sustained containment time to produce net energy output
Which of the following negative impacts is not attributable to acid rain?
destruction of the ozone layer
All of the following are strategies for disposing of high-level radioactive wastes
disposal in sanitary landfills
The reservoir now believed to contain the largest amount of carbon is
gas hydrates
Coal subjected to overly high temperatures will metamorphose into
graphite
The fuel to be used by fusion reactors is
hydrogen
As societies evolve from primitive to technological, the energy consumption associated with agriculture
increases
The hydrocarbon fuel in oil shale is
kerogen
The gaseous fuel obtained from sanitary landfills is
methane
As heat and pressure act upon petroleum, it finally becomes
natural gas
Geopressurized zones might one day become an important source of
natural gas
The most abundant gaseous element in the atmosphere is
nitrogen
easons why no new nuclear power plants have been ordered since 1978
nuclear plants are more costly to build than coal-fired plants, nuclear plants require a long time to plan, build, and license, and increased concerns over nuclear reactor safety
Optimistic projections state that nuclear fission will supply about how much of the total energy used in the United States by the year 2020?
one-third
The accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant was caused by
partial loss of coolant
Which of the following is not an example of a point source?
pastureland
An example of a radioisotope that is also a toxic chemical poison is
plutonium-239
Maximum insolation occurs over the
southwestern U.S.
Which region of the United States has the greatest potential for the development of large-scale windmill arrays
the Great Plains
Annual per capita consumption of gasoline is highest in
the United States
The single largest source of carbon monoxide in the atmosphere is
the automobile
A Chernobyl-style accident would be unlikely at a commercial nuclear plant in the United States because
the design of American commercial nuclear reactors is different from that of the Chernobyl reactor
The higher the BOD of a sample of water
the higher the organic-matter load of the sample
A disadvantage in using old landfill sites for cropland or pastureland is
the possible incorporation of toxic chemicals into plant tissues
The fissionable isotope of uranium used in most nuclear power reactors is
uranium-235
Which of the following methods is used to remove sulfur gases from coal-fired plant emissions?
wet chemical scrubbing
Petroleum accounts for about how much of the energy used in the United States?
40%
One barrel of oil is equal to how many gallons
42
The biomass energy source that provides about one-third of Hawaii's electricity is
wastes from sugar-cane processing plants
The largest volume of toxic wastes is generated by
industry
Which one of the following fuels would give off the most heat per given unit weight?
anthracite
A sample of a certain radioisotope has a mass of 100 grams. If the radioisotope has a half-life of 10 years, how much of the original radioisotope would be present after 30 years?
12.5 grams
An oil well "gusher" would be an example of
25%
Coal supplies about how much of the energy used in the United States
25%
Natural gas supplies about how much of the energy used in the United States.
25%
Currently, the best experimental solarcells have an efficiency of about
30 %
An "ozone hole" first appeared over
Antarctica
The organic compound responsible for impairing calcium metabolism in birds, resulting in the laying of thin-shelled, fragile eggs, was
DDT
the worst oil spill in United States waters was the
Exxon Valdez spill
Which is an advantage of geothermal power?
It is almost pollution-free, It is competitive economically with other methods of generating electricity, There are no ash, radioactive-waste, or carbon-dioxide problems
The nation having the largest proven reserves of crude oil is
Saudi Arabia
Mine drainage is a significant nonpoint source of surface-water pollution in the state of
West Virginia