Nuclear Waste

Richard Muller wrote about the many complications with the uses and disposal of nuclear products that man has created and wonder whether it is all worth the trouble. The article is ridden with numbers and statistics that give the reader a general idea for what we as a country would have to do in order to properly dispose of these hazards. Granted the timeline for nuclear waste disposal is very unrealistic and is stressed by the author. Many interesting facts were brought to my attention while reading this article. The fact that the U.S. Government has been drilling holes inside of a mountain and storing it a thousand feet under the surface, which is costing them lots of money. The fact that Yucca isn't a stable environment stresses the uncertainty of the government's decision.

The article seemed to be rather hard to get through for my fellow classmates considering it was like reading a text book style of writing, but the science aspect kept me interested. This article show lots of logos with all the numbers, years, and percentages; regardless of the author's need to emphasize the problems with nuclear waste. The diction of the story kept it at a enjoyable level, because it gave a voice to Richard Muller's article, whereas many science papers lack. There was a little pathos involved, and ethos was established by whether or not our society's decisions are the correct ones. The paper shows only one side of a story that I know nothing about which caused some problems for me when reading. Yet Muller kept on track with his ideals and thesis offering a well made persuasive essay. The only thing that this paper needed was more examples to that we would relate to such as on page 210, where Richard talks about how it was only ten thousand years humans discovered agriculture and how planning for such long lengths of time seem unreal.