Classmate critique

This is from my classmate's article on why the U.S. should use solar energy. I believe that solar energy is one of the most effective ways to support “going green.” I’m also convinced that we should go green because of the statistics that said “the energy that strikes the surface of the earth in 8 minutes is more than the world uses in a year.” Your article is convincing in terms of explaining how effective solar energy actually is, but your reasoning about the cost of solar panels is still unclear. You said that the cost for solar panels can be paid off in a short amount of time, but how short is it? Although solar energy is ideal, the cost of solar panels for the whole country maybe too much for our government to handle hence we are behind in the amount of solar panels in our country.

From your article, I am not convinced that the U.S. is ready for solar panels in terms of cost especially during this economic recession.

U.S. plans for disposing plutonium

This article explains about how the U.S. plan to remove plutonium from their nuclear weapons in regards to their treaty with Russia. The U.S. has been trying to build a factory that would “convert the plutonium to reactor fuel” since the 1990s.

The main reason why the disposal of plutonium hasn’t taken into effect yet is because of the expense. This argument would be more believable if the plan started in the 2000s because that was when the economic recession started happening. During the 90s, the economy was actually expanding as opposed to collapsing. Converting plutonium for a reactor may be expensive but when the economy is at its high, finances are the last thing that is standing in the way. The U.S. could only be procrastinating on the job because the Russian’s “program has been delayed for years.” I believe that the U.S. might not trust Russia in terms of nuclear weapons. I think their just waiting to see if Russia will start at all.

What the U.S. has done so far is stop the production of more plutonium. Although the U.S. has stopped production, they have yet to dispose the remains as of now. According to the article, the “United States already has such a large plutonium surplus that it may be running out of storage places.” I thought the agreement was to dispose of it and not “store” it somewhere else. I think the U.S. feels insecure without their nuclear weapons; similarly to a soldier without his guns. With that in mind I highly doubt that U.S. will dispose of all of their nuclear bombs. They may dispose the ones that are still “visible”, but not the ones that are hidden.