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