Luken Bradford
Dr. Pantuso
English 104
16/10/2017
Crazy talk with Nuclear Waste
The professor of physics at the University of California at Berkley, Richard A. Muller, is
quite unique in grabbing a viewers attention but not too strong in getting his point across in his
article “Nuclear Waste” Throughout the article he makes valid and obvious chemistry
calculations and then continues to use chemistry terms to show he has a valid point in his
argument. However, Muller’s inability to reach the realization that there are sufficient and
successful methods of disposing nuclear waste, leads him to bring up a better idea for the
problem, Yucca Mountain: The facility that holds close 77,000 tons of high level nuclear waste
will not only be a complete waste of tax payers money, but it will be a horrifying task in the eyes
of most scientists. From this the only thing to read is Muller’s ongoing love for the topic and his
great amount of scientific evidence which prove that Muller is a great intellectual but is certainly
unable to form a reasonably efficient argument.
Muller starts off opposing leaving the nuclear waste untouched by saying “that highly
radioactive debris will endure for millions of years”(206). The insightful quote is then followed
up by a simplified explanation of the dangers of the radioactive chemical Plutonium. Muller
analyses plutonium in a mediocre way with easy to-do chemistry problems which include
calculating the total radioactivity of a chemical as years pass on. As the argument continues,
Muller fails to discuss the dangers of such radioactive chemicals, leaving the reader to think that
such radioactivity emitted from chemicals such as plutonium will poison our resources and kill
most of the human population as long as nuclear waste lays untouched. Of course Muller then
proposes Yucca Mountain which will “reach 100$ billion, and hundreds of billions of dollars in
operations”(207). Such a use of money along with a incomprehensibly difficult scientific task
could lead to an unimaginable breakthrough but it could, as with most cases, lead to disaster.
Throughout the unique course of the article that Muller creates, it is correct to imply that
the professor of physics is proud of his work and research produced to make such an article.
After the introduction, Muller casts off a section and names it “My Confession”. Here he
explains how problems such as nuclear waste “are the arguments you will hear when you are
president”(208), leading the population to believe that nuclear waste will affect people in the far
future without no sufficient data to support it. However, Muller is so confident in his knowledge
