QUIZ – 2017: Insights Current Affairs Quiz, 29 November 2018

Solution: c.

• From 2017 (Th):Hyperspectral imaging involves analysing extremely detailed images of an object — frequently to the scale of nanometres — and then reconstructing its constituent elements. Using custom-developed algorithms, satellite-images, or those taken from low flying planes or drones, can be used to calculate the proportion of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous — the three most vital nutrients — as well as other minerals in the soil and be used to gauge its health.

• From 2017 (TH): Hyperspectral or hyspex imaging is said to be an EO trend that is being experimented globally. Adding a new dimension to plain-vanilla optical imagers, it can be used for a range of activities from monitoring the environment, crops, looking for oil and minerals all the way up to military surveillance — all of which need images that show a high level of differentiation of the object or scene.

In the news (TH): ISRO all set for HysIS launch.

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Solution a.

Thorium has several advantages over Uranium as a nuclear power source.

• Thorium is three times more abundant in the Earth’s crust than Uranium, and
• many Thorium deposits contain other mineral resources of value (rare earths elements in particular).
• All the Thorium that is mined can be used in a reactor, in comparison to less than 1% of natural Uranium that may be used.
• Th-232 possesses a 14 billion year half-life, rendering it safer than Uranium and Plutonium.

Significant Thorium deposits exist in the United States, Brazil, India, and Australia; the total resource of monazite in India is 12.5 million tonne, which contains approximately 1 million tonne thorium metal.

Imported fuel (natural uranium) contains fissile isotope (Uranium-235), which undergoes nuclear fission in a reactor to produce energy. It is not possible to build a nuclear reactor using thorium (Thorium-232) alone due to its physics characteristics. Thorium has to be converted to Uranium-233 in a reactor before it can be used as fuel.

The Kalpakkam Mini Reactor (KAMINI), which is in operation at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR) at Kalpakkam, is the only reactor in the world operating with Uranium- 233 fuel.

For statement 3 explanation, refer solution to next question.

DAE; Stanford;

Improvisation: BBC;

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Solution: c.

Thorium-bearing mineral monazite occurs in association with other Beach Sand Minerals (BSM) such as ilmenite, rutile, zircon, garnet and sillimanite in unconsolidated form along the coastal and inland placer sands of the country. Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMD), a constituent unit of Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has identified and evaluated 128 BSM deposits in the coastal beach placer sands in parts of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat and in the inland riverine placer sands in parts of Jharkhand and West Bengal. State-wise details of in situ monazite resource established by AMD (as on June, 2018):

DAE;

Improvisation: BBC;

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Solution: d.

Flammable Ice describes a frozen mixture of water and gas. It looks like ice crystals but if you zoom in to a molecular level, you see that the methane molecules are caged in by the water molecules.

Officially known as methane clathrates or hydrates, they are formed at very low temperatures and under high pressure. They can be found in sediments under the ocean floor as well as underneath permafrost on land. One cubic metre of the compound releases about 160 cubic metres of gas, making it a highly energy -intensive fuel.

As a country lacking any natural energy resources, Japan has been a pioneer in the field. Other leading countries are India or South Korea – who also don’t have their own oil reserves. While the US and Canada are also active in the field, they have been focussing on hydrates under permafrost in the far north of Alaska and Canada.

From 2017: BBC;

Improvisation: BBC;

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Solution: d.

BBC: Russia-Ukraine sea clash;

tH;

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