Across
- 4. The generation of electricity using the kinetic energy of moving water.
- 6. Japanese nuclear power plant severely damaged by the tsunami associated with the March 2011 Tohoku earthquake that rocked Japan. Most radiation drifted over the ocean away from population centers, but the event was history’s second most serious nuclear accident.
- 7. Energy harnessed from plant and animal matter, including wood from trees, charcoal from burned wood, and combustible animal waste products, such as cattle manure.
- 8. The conversion of the energy within an atom’s nucleus to usable thermal energy by forcing together the small nuclei of lightweight elements under extremely high temperature and pressure.
- 10. A facility within a nuclear power plant that initiates and controls the process of nuclear fission to generate electricity.
- 13. Organic material derived from living or recently living organisms, containing chemical energy that originated with photosynthesis.
- 14. A technique used to generate hydroelectric power, in which water is pumped from a lower reservoir to a higher reservoir when power demand is weak and prices are low. When demand is strong and prices are high, water is allowed to flow downhill through a turbine, generating electricity.
- 15. Organic material that makes up living organisms; the collective mass of living matter in a given place and time.
- 16. Site of a nuclear power plant in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union), where in 1986 an explosion caused the most severe nuclear reactor accident the world has yet seen. The term is also often used to denote the accident itself.
- 19. Ethanol produced from the cellulose in plant tissues by treating it with enzymes.
- 20. Technique used to generate hydroelectric power, in which large amounts of water are impounded in a reservoir behind a concrete dam and then passed through the dam to turn turbines that generate electricity.
Down
- 1. Any of several methods used to generate hydroelectric power without greatly disrupting the flow of river water.
- 2. The conversion of the energy within an atom’s nucleus to usable thermal energy by splitting apart atomic nuclei.
- 3. The accidental melting of the uranium fuel rods inside the core of a nuclear reactor, causing the release of radiation.
- 5. Fuel produced from biomass sources and used primarily to power automobiles.
- 9. The use of nuclear energy to generate electricity.
- 11. Nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania that in 1979 experienced a partial meltdown. The term is often used to denote the accident itself, the most serious nuclear reactor malfunction that the United States has thus far experienced.
- 12. Diesel fuel produced by mixing vegetable oil, used cooking grease, or animal fat with small amounts of ethanol or methanol (wood alcohol) in the presence of a chemical catalyst.
- 17. Power attained by combusting biomass sources to generate electricity.
- 18. The energy that holds together protons and neutrons within the nucleus of an atom.