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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. When was the last date that anthrax letters were sent in 2001?
(a) December 3.
(b) November 16.
(c) September 28.
(d) October 9.

2. How long does the radioactivity of iodine-131 last?
(a) 5 months.
(b) 2 years.
(c) A month.
(d) A few weeks.

3. How many tons of jet fuel did each plane carry in the 9/11 attack?
(a) 55.
(b) 60.
(c) 65.
(d) 50.

4. About how many people near the Chernobyl reactor were thought to have received about 45 rem each?
(a) 30,000.
(b) 40,000.
(c) 10,000.
(d) 20,000.

5. How long were the steel columns of the World Trade Center designed to maintain their strength during an ordinary fire?
(a) 4 to 5 hours.
(b) 1 hour.
(c) 6 hours.
(d) 2 to 3 hours.

6. When did North Korea test its first atomic bomb?
(a) January 7, 2006.
(b) November 18, 2006.
(c) October 9, 2006.
(d) July 11, 2006.

7. How much more energy is typically released by a nuclear chain reaction than an equal weight of TNT?
(a) 20 million times.
(b) 10,000 times.
(c) 500,000 times.
(d) 15 million times.

8. How many beta rays must a fifth of whiskey emit every minute or be considered unfit for human consumption?
(a) 300.
(b) 200.
(c) 400.
(d) 500.

9. Of those killed by the Hiroshima atomic bomb, what is the best estimate of the percent of people who died of radiation-induced cancer?
(a) 25.
(b) 3.
(c) 2.
(d) 11.

10. A ton of TNT is equal to the energy of how many food calories?
(a) 750,000.
(b) 100,000.
(c) 1 million.
(d) 500,000.

11. When was gasoline a key component of the Molotov cocktails used in Spain?
(a) 1950s.
(b) 1940s.
(c) 1930s.
(d) 1920s.

12. How much of a half-life does carbon-14 have?
(a) 2,840 years.
(b) 5,730 years.
(c) 3,910 years.
(d) 4,592 years.

13. When the book was written, was the the total world production of oil per year?
(a) 60 billion barrels.
(b) 50 billion barrels.
(c) 40 billion barrels.
(d) 30 billion barrels.

14. What limit in Chapter 8, did the U.S. government set as a limit for the general public's exposure to radioactivity?
(a) 2 rem.
(b) 1 rem.
(c) 0.1 rem.
(d) 0.9 rem.

15. How many square miles of sunlight at midday could provide a gigawatt of electric power?
(a) 3.
(b) 2.
(c) 1.
(d) 4.

Short Answer Questions

1. When did a National Academy of Science report show no significant increase in birth defects of the children of victims in Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

2. How many gama rays were the firefighters of Chernobyl exposed to?

3. In the Manhattan Project, how much uranium did scientists believe was needed for a critical mass?

4. At the time the book was written, what company was second in oil reserves only to Saudi Arabia?

5. How many deaths did the United Nations estimate around the world were caused by radiation from Chernobyl?

(see the answer keys)

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