SDA Vol. 5 No. 3
The Atomic Puzzler!
Time once again for the popular SDA Atomic Puzzler! Some of you may filled in our atomic crossword puzzles, but we'd like to do a little "Arithmetic for Activists" this time around. So sharpen those math skills and give it a try! We've provided you a little help with Gamma, the trusty dog, who will see you through the rough ("ruff?") spots. Good luck!The Puzzler:
| An air pollution control device typically consists of some kind of filter that traps pollutants. Consider a bag filter into which polluted air is flowing at the rate of 20 cubic meters per minute with a uranium dust loading of half a gram per cubic meter. (That is, there is one half gram of uranium dust per cubic meter of air.) The filtered air is exhausted through a stack. The filter has an efficiency of 70%. |
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Regulations require the plant to keep its daily stack emissions below 1.5 kilograms per day. The plant's managers have calculated that they are in compliance. But your sleuthing dog Gamma says they didn't do their math right. Is Gamma right? How much is the plant emitting?
(Assume 24-hours per day operation and remember 1 kilogram = 1,000 grams.) |
| Advanced question. Assume that the air coming out of the stack is diluted by a factor of 10,000 by the time it reaches the plant boundary. The standard for air quality at the boundary for uranium is 0.005 picocuries per liter. Will the standard be violated? (Assume the uranium is natural uranium. Remember that the specific activity of natural uranium is 0.67 microcuries per gram. Also remember 1 cubic meter = 1,000 liters.) | |
Some tips: IEER's On-Line Technical Training Classroom may help you solve parts of this puzzler.
Try the Scientific Notation page, and the Prefixes page if you need help.
Answers available here.
But give it your best shot first!
Institute for Energy and Environmental Research
Outreach Coordinator: ieer@ieer.org