Terrific Tech
When water is heated to boiling it becomes this gas.
What is Steam?
This form of energy is created at an SMR.
What is radiation?
A major environmental benefit to SMRs is they do not release these while making electricity.
What are greenhouse gases?
The majority of Alberta's electricity is produced today by burning this.
What is natural gas?
True or false: Nuclear reactors don't actually make electricity.
True - They make heat!
True or false? Bananas give off radiation.
True
(It's a tiny amount from the potassium in a banana)
Because of their fairly small size, SMRs use less of this, when compared to many other sources of electricity.
What is land?
SMRs can help provide the "baseload" power that might enable even more of these two types of renewable energy.
What are wind and solar energy?
This element is the fuel source for nuclear reactors.
What is Uranium?
Workers at an SMR wear these on their protective clothing to monitor for radiation.
What are 'sensors'?
Some SMRs require this from the surrounding environment to operate the reactor's cooling system.
What is water?
True or False. SMRs are definitely coming to Alberta, and soon.
False
SMRs are only now being discussed, they may not come at all and if they did, it will probably won't be for many years.
SMRs use this process to heat water and produce steam.
What is nuclear energy/nuclear fission?
What are steel and concrete?
This process of getting Uranium out of the ground is a land-based environmental impact of nuclear energy.
What is mining?
It would be important for an SMR to be placed somewhere close to Transmission Lines, which are made of large towers and these super long cables which carry electricity over long distances.
What are "wires"?
"SMR" seems to have a letter missing. Which letter and what does it stand for?
What is "N" for nuclear?
"To prevent radiation from being released, used uranium fuel will be stored in concrete and steel containers for
a) A few days until they cool down
b) Several years before moving to long-term storage
b) Several years
For permanent disposal, waste is planned to be stored deep underground in specially designed facilities that can last for thousands or even millions of years.
What two provinces in Canada currently rely on nuclear energy for a majority of their GHG-free electricity production?
Ontario and New Brunswick
While it's not decided where an SMR might go in Alberta, it's likely that it would be located near this.
What is 'water'?
or What are lakes and rivers?