Questions 10—11 are based on the following:
Antinuclear activist: The closing of the nuclear power plant is a victory
for the antinuclear cause. It also represents a belated acknowledgment by the
power industry that they cannot operate such plants safely.
Nuclear power plant manager: It represents no such thing. The availability of
cheap power from nonnuclear sources, together with the cost of mandated safety
inspections and safety repairs, made continued operation uneconomic. Thus it was
not safety considerations but economic considerations that dictated the plant’s
closing. A certain clock marks every hour by striking a number of times equal
to the hour and the time required for a stroke is exactly equal to the time
interval between strokes. At 6:00 the time lapse between the beginning of the
first stroke and the end of the last stroke is 22 seconds. At 12:00, how many
seconds elapse between the beginning of the first stroke and the end of the last
stroke