According to the Department of Energy (DOE), 99 U.S. reactorshave generated 805 billion kilowatt hours of electricity in 2016.That is 20% of the U.S. energy generated that year and enough topower 73 million homes. How many tonnes (metric tons) of naturaluranium have the U.S. needed that year? In your calculations,ignore the energy gained from the fissioning of Pu239 produced fromthe fertile U238 (i.e., assume all the energy generated from thefissile U235). Also ignore the efficiency of heat to electricityconversion (about 30%). Recall that the percentage of U235 innatural uranium is 0.7%. (Hint: first determine how many atoms ofU235 must have undergone fission to produce the above mentionedenergy given that each fission generates 200 MeV, then convert thatinto mass)
