Research Report

 Understanding the source for which you use to argue is very important to crafting a solid argument. Missinterpreting a source can cause your argument to completely collapse.

1. Title: "Is the 'Superfuel' Thorium Riskier Than We Thought?" Host: Popular Mechanics
Author Info: Phil McKenna, Has a masters in Science Writing from MIT, Has written for NOVA, NYT, and many other magazines.
Audience: The audience is people who are not very knowledgable in Thorium energy. The beginning paragraph is starts off with "Imagine a cheap, plentiful source of energy" to appeal to those uneducated in Thorium energy.
Purpose: The purpose is to inform the public of the dangers of Thorium energy. He cites the process of the way it can be made dangerous.
Contextual details: He cites interviews by multiple CEOs and Experts in the field.

2. Title: "The Truth about Thorium and Nuclear Power" Host: Popular Mechanics
Author Info: Elizabeth Svoboda, Has written many articles on nuclear energy for popular mechanics and has been writting for them since 2009.
Audience: The audience is people who are aware of the nuclear energy debate going on in the world. She makes references to numerous incidents, including Three Mile Island.
Purpose: The purpose of this article is to convince the audience that Thorium power is good.
Contextual details: This article was published a few months before the Fukushima-Daichii disaster and is a little old. The source makes numerous references to thorium companies and has links to them.

3. Title: "Development of Tiny Thorium Reactors Could Wean the World off Oil in just Five Years" Host: Popular Science
Author Info: Rebecca Boyle, Has written many articles for Popular Science and Scientific American.
Audience: The audience is people who are not aware of Thorium Nuclear Energy. She trys to explain all the parts of it so her audience will be come aware.
Purpose: The purpose is to convince the audience that Thorium energy is the best for of energy. She makes numerous mentions to how Thorium energy is the best way to stop fossil fuel consumption.
Contextual details: She is very reliable because she has been reporting on this topic for a while.

4. Title: "The Dream of a Thorium Filled Future" Host: Popular Science
Author Info: Alex Pasternack, He is the cofounder of Motherboard's Science webseries and is a journalist for many magazines.
Audience: People who are aware of Thorium but aren't knowledgeable about it.
Purpose: The purpose is to inform the audience of the "Thorium Dream" and how it has gathered a large group of supporters.
Contextual details: He gives refences to China giving the green light for Thorium research and people leaving their high level jobs to make businesses centered around Thorium.

5. Title: "Thorium Reactors: An Improvement over Uranium?" Host: Stanford
Author Info: Ashley Micks, A student at Stanford in PH241 in 2013
Audience: The article is directed to an audience that is aware of Thorium reactors but don;t knkow much about it.
Purpose: The purpose of this article is to inform the audience of the Thorium fuel reactor and the dangers and bonuses it has associated with it.
Contextual details: This article was written for a project similar to this one and has links to numerous sources.

6. Title: "Chemical Processing for Liquid-Fluoride Thorium Reactors" Host: Berkley.edu
Author Info: Kirk Sorenson, He is the President of a well know energy company and is a loud proponent of Thorium Reactors.
Audience: The audience of this article is for stundents studying alternative energies. He uses many phrases that are uncommon to those not well versed in the area of Nuclear energy.
Purpose: The purpose of this article is to inform and persuade the audience that Thorium reactors are the best source of Nuclear energy. He cites their safety and versatility.
Contextual details: Berkely is a reliable website since it is a university and Kirk Sorenson has given many speeches on Thorium all over the world.

7. Title: "Abundant Thorium as an Alternative Nuclear Fuel" Host: MIT.edu
Author Info: Martin Baker Shaffer, He works for the RAND Corporation and is published in an MIT publication.
Audience: The audience of this paper is professionals in the field of energy or energy policy. The wording of the document is very sophisticated.
Purpose: The purpose of this document is to inform the audience of the benefits of using Thorium Reactors as a source over the current solid salt reactors.
Contextual details: The genre of this is a research paper which means it went through intense edditing before being published. The article also makes references to numerous outside sources.

8. Title: "Does Thorium have a Place in the Futre U.S. Electricity Mix?" Host: University of San Fransisco
Author Info: Danny West, He is a master's student at the University studying Environmental Management.
Audience: The audience are people who are looking at alternative sources of energy and want something that is envoirnmentally friendly.
Purpose: The purpose of this article is to convince the audience that Thorium reactors are the best for of nuclear energy that we have available today.
Contextual details: There are references to many outside sources and is published by a university.

9. Title: "Liquid Fluoride Thorium Power: Pros and Cons" Host: The University of Virginia
Author Info: RP Slegel, He is a well knkown inventor and has had works published in numerous magazines including the Huffington Post.
Audience: The audience of this article are people who don't know much about Thorium reactors.
Purpose: The purpose is to show both sides of the Thorium power debate and allow the reader to decide whether Thorium is a viable option for electricity.
Contextual details: This article was republished on the University of Virginia website but was originally published to a different one.

10. Title: "Comments on Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) Technology" Host: University of Northern Texas
Author Info: There is no Author to this document but looks to have been written by the department of Climate Change at the University of Northern Texas
Audience: The audience of this is people who are interested in the climate and energy. It is geared towards people who are looking to see if Thorium is a good choice of Nuclear Power.
Purpose: The pupose of this document was to give the Department of Energy and Climate Change's opinion on Thorium Reactors. Spoiler alert: they aren't found of it.
Contextual details: The article is very fact heavy and has a large amount of evidense to support its claims.