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Plant Operator Selection System (POSS) VIP Practice Certification Exam
Plant Operator Selection System Test — The Plant Operator Selection System (POSS) is a validated pre-employment aptitude battery developed by the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and used by electric utility companies nationwide to screen candidates for power plant operator positions; it contains four subtests — Reading Comprehension, Mathematical Usage, Mechanical Concepts, and Figure Recognition — administered under timed conditions with employer-specific cut scores.
31
Questions
75m
Time Limit
70.00%
To Pass
Question 1 of 31👑 VIP
Read the following passage, then answer the question. "A cooling tower is a heat rejection device that extracts waste heat to the atmosphere by cooling a recirculating water stream. The process relies on evaporation: as a small fraction of the circulating water evaporates, it carries away latent heat, cooling the remaining water. The rate of evaporation — and therefore the cooling effectiveness — depends on air temperature, relative humidity, and air flow rate through the tower. In a typical large power plant, approximately 1–2% of the circulating water inventory evaporates for every 10°F of cooling achieved. Make-up water must be continuously added to replace both evaporation losses and blowdown, which is the deliberate discharge of a portion of the concentrated water to prevent mineral scale buildup." According to the passage, what is the primary physical mechanism by which a cooling tower removes heat from the water?
Questions 2–31 and full explanations are VIP-exclusive.