Environmental science Unit 6A

Fossil Fuel

A fuel derived from biological material that became fossilized millions of years ago.

Nonrenewable energy resource

An energy source with a finite supply, primarily the fossil fuels and nuclear fuels.

Nuclear Fuel

Fuel derived from radioactive materials that give off energy.

Commercial energy source

An energy source that is bought and sold.

Subsistence energy source

An energy source gathered by individuals for their own immediate needs.

Energy carrier

Something that can move and deliver energy in a convenient, usable form to end users.

Turbine

A device that can be turned by water, steam, or wind to produce power.

Electrical Grid

A network of interconnected transmission lines that joins power plants together and links them with end users of electricity.

Combined Cycle

A power plant that uses both exhaust gases and steam turbines to generate electricity.

Capacity

In reference to an electricity- generating plant, the maximum electrical output.

Capacity factor

The fraction of time a power plant operates in a year.

Cogeneration

The use of a fuel to generate electricity and produce heat. Also known as combined heat and power.

Combined heat and power

Another word for Cogeneration

Coal

A solid fuel formed primarily from the remains of trees, ferns, and other plant materials preserved 280 million to 360 million years ago.

Petroleum

A widely-used fossil fuel that occurs in underground deposits, composed of a liquid mixture of hydrocarbons, water, and sulfur.

Crude Oil

Liquid petroleum removed from the ground.

Oil Sands

Slow-flowing, viscous deposits of bitumen mixed with sand, water, and clay.

Bitumen

A degraded petroleum that forms when petroleum migrates to the surface of Earth and is modified by bacteria.

CTL (Coal to Liquid)

The process of converting solid coal into liquid fuel.

Energy Intensity

The energy use per unit of gross domestic product.

Hubbert Curve

A bell-shaped curve representing oil use and projecting both when world oil production will reach a maximum and when the world will run out of oil.

Peak Oil

The point at which half the total known oil supply is used up.

Fission

A nuclear reaction in which a neutron strikes a relatively large atomic nucleus, which then splits into two or more parts, releasing additional neutrons and energy in the form of heat.

Fuel Rod

A cylindrical tube that encloses nuclear fuel within a nuclear reactor.

Control Rod

A cylindrical device inserted between the fuel rods in a nuclear reactor to absorb excess neutrons and slow or stop the fission reaction.

Radioactive waste

Nuclear fuel that can no longer produce enough heat to be useful in a power plant but continues to emit radioactivity.

Becquerel (Bq)

Unit that measures the rate at which a sample of radioactive material decays; 1 Bq = decay of 1 atom or nucleus per second.

Curie

A unit of measure for radiation; 1 curie = 37 billion decays per second

Nuclear Fusion

A reaction that occurs when lighter nuclei are forced together to produce heavier nuclei.