NON RENEWABLE ENERGY Energy Test- April 23, 2012

COAL- 50% OF US ELECTRICITY  FORMATION: Formed from plants that lived in swamps millions of years ago  EXTRACTION: Coal is mined using room and pillar mining, long wall mining or mountain top removal and strip mining.  IMPACTS: Coal dust is a carcinogen to mine workers, and local communities. Coal removal requires lots of water- creating droughts and water pollution. Coal changes the landscape and enhances flooding and erosion. Coal creates hazardous waste that sits open to the environment. Burning coal creates air pollutants like sulfur that cause acid rain.

COAL- ENERGY GENERATION  ELECTRIC GENERATER Electricity is created by rotating a coil of wire that rotates in a magnetic field- creating electrical energy from mechanical energy.  The power to turn the generator is created by burning coal and capturing the steam from boiling water.

OIL- 3% OF US ENERGY  FORMATION: Formed from the decay of tiny marine organisms that accumulated on bottom of ocean- buried by sediments and heated into energy rich carbon molecules.  EXTRACTION: Drilling into the earth and oil is withdrawn from an oil field by pumping it out, sometimes added pressure by injecting steam is needed to to get oil out.  IMPACTS: Oil can spill into environment. Burning oil releases carbon dioxide and sulfur (greenhouse gases) into the environment.

OIL- 3% OF US ELECTRICITY  Energy from oil is provided in many forms. Petroleum is used to make plastic products as as well as fertilizers in agriculture. Gasoline to power automobiles and other machinery.

NATURAL GAS- 18% OF US ELECTRICITY  FORMATION: Formed from the decay of tiny marine organisms that accumulated on bottom of ocean- buried by sediments and heated into energy rich carbon molecules.  EXTRACTION: Natural Gas is derived by tapping into the earth; pumped through a pipeline OR hydraulic fracturing which requires injecting high pressure chemicals and water into the earth creating small cracks or fractures.  IMPACTS: Extracting gas through hydraulic fracturing introduces chemicals into the water supply or the environment. Building pipelines long enough to transport gas long distance causes environmental problems.

NATURAL GAS-  ENERGY- is burned in homes for heating, cooking and as a fuel to power vehicles..

NUCLEAR ENERGY- 20% OF US ELECTRICITY  ENERGY GENERATION: inside a thick pressure vessel solid uranium pellets inside fuel rods are bombarded with neutrons. Intense collisions split the uranium nuclei- nuclear fission- releasing an incredible amounts of energy and creating a chain reaction of fission. Control rods surround the fuel rods controlling the reaction by absorbing neutrons. The steam from heating water is used to generate electricity...

NUCLEAR ENERGY- 20% OF US ELECTRICITY  DANGERS: Nuclear energy is very powerful, if it becomes uncontrollable, it is like releasing a nuclear bomb.  WASTE: Spent fuel rods are radioactive for thousands of years- so finding a place to store this waste is difficult..