While brainstorming some research questions, I referred to the section in Rules for Writers about forming a research question. I happened to glance at one of their example questions and it instantly caught my interest. The question was "Which geological formations are the safest repositories for nuclear waste?"
It turns out that I am currently working in a field that ties directly to this topic. My job this summer is with Sandia National Laboratories. Sandia is the most prominent national laboratory and one of the projects they are tied to is the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP). The WIPP is the only operable nuclear waste storage facility in the country. I work in the Sandia lab in Carlsbad, New Mexico that does much of the research related to the WIPP. Recently the WIPP had an incident where one of the storage cotainers in the facility ruptured, causing low-level radiation leakage. Since the incident the continued operation of WIPP has been highly contentious. This makes it a perfect subject for my next project.
So, here are a few research questions that I can pose:
Should the US be using nuclear energy?
Should the WIPP continue as a repository?
Is it safe to be storing nuclear waste relatively close to human habitance?
Is the WIPP a safe repository for long term storage?
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