Question

Consider the following statistic.

As of January 2009, the USA has produced 60,000 metric tons of nuclear waste in 60 years of operating 104 nuclear power plants.

On average, how much waste is produced by each plant on a monthly basis?
0.8 tons per month
83.3 tons per month
104 tons per month
866.3 tons per month

Answer 1

Compute per-plant total then per-month:

60,000 tons ÷ 104 plants ≈ 576.92 tons per plant (over 60 years).
60 years = 60×12 = 720 months, so 576.92 ÷ 720 ≈ 0.80 tons/month.

Answer: 0.8 tons per month.