Summary

Chapter 13, “Nuclear Waste,” deals with what to do with the by-products of nuclear reactions and is divided into three sections. In the introduction to the section, Muller writes about how difficult to store radioactive wastes are. He describes the Yucca Mountain storage facility in which the U.S. stores nuclear waste to the tune of 100 billion dollars, and the fact that enough waste has already been generated to more than fill it. He says that proposed alternatives are ridiculous, like shooting the waste into the sun. So then, he asks, isn it not also ridiculous to generate any more waste in any more nuclear power plants?

In “My Confession,” Muller then tells the reader that the opinions expressed in the introduction are not his own. He was trying to recreate common anti-nuclear power sentiments, which he does not agree with, but which...