Yn ôl adroddiad yn y Guardian mae'r rhod wedi troi (esgusodwch yr eironi anfwriadol!) ac mae'r llywodraeth unwaith eto yn rhoi ei ffydd mewn ynni niwclear. Y gobaith yw y bydd ynni niwclear yn lleihau ar y carthion carbon sy'n cael eu cynhyrchu gan rai dulliau eraill o gynhyrchu ynni ac sy'n bygwth y ddaear trwy ystumio ein hamgylchfyd ac yn cynhesu'r blaned. Roeddwn yn siarad gyda AD ddechrau'r wythnos ac roedd e'n dweud ei fod wedi bod i ddarlith goffa Phil Williams a draddodwyd gan Syr John Houghton ar bwnc twymo byd-eang. Roedd gwrando ar AD yn adrodd am y ddarlith yn ddigon i lenwi unrhyw un ag ofn a gofid am ddyfodol y ddaear. Wrth wynebu'r fath fygythiad difrifol dwi'n methu'n deg â gweld fod troi at ffynhonnell niwclear yn ateb gwirioneddol er mor ddeniadol yn y tymor byr.Roedd un o rifynnau diweddar y cylchgrawn New internationalist yn edrych ar y pwnc. Roedd yn rhifyn diddorol iawn, yn fwy diddorol na'r cyffredin. Ac wrth gwrs, nid dim ond gofid ynglŷn â charthion carbon sy'n gyrru'r ail-asesiad yma. Na, y tu ôl i'r cwbl mae busnesau mawrion sy'n gobeithio gwneud arian mawr allan o hyn i gyd ac yn gwthio'r gwleidyddion tuag at eu ffordd o feddwl. Fel hyn y mae Adam Ma'anit yn dweud ar ddechrau ei erthygl Nuclear is the new black:
Just when we thought it was no longer de rigueur to talk of nuclear utopias where electricity would be ‘too cheap to metre’, the atom-smashing business is all the rage again. After the PR disasters of Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, lobby groups, think-tanks and public relations firms have been hard at it trying to revitalize the industry’s battered image with limited success. But increasing concerns about the threat of climate chaos caused by our fossil fuel addiction has handed the industry a lifeline. And they’ve been getting a little help from an unexpected corner.Cam arall ar y ffordd yn ôl at ynni niwclear oedd datganiad Tony Blair ddoe. Cyn bo hir bydd hi'n rhaid ail-ddadlau yr hen ddadleuon; a chyda ofn a gofid newid hinsawdd yn gysgod dros y cwbl mae'n ddigon posib y bydd hi'n fwy anodd eu dadlau, ac mae'n ddigon posib y bydd pobol yn fwy parod i'w gwrthod am yr ateb sy'n ymddangos yn haws na'r un arall ar hyn o bryd.
I first began to take real notice in May 2004. That month a now infamous article by scientist James Lovelock, founder of the Gaia hypothesis (which postulates that the earth acts as one super organism), was splashed across the front page of the British newspaper, The Independent. It conjured up fears of impending doom from climate change, overpopulation and deforestation. Lovelock admonished critics of the nuclear industry and their ‘irrational fear fed by Hollywood-style fiction, the Green lobbies and the media’. Their fears, he said, are unjustified, and ‘nuclear energy from its start in 1952 has proved to be the safest of all energy sources’. The environmentalist icon concluded that, ‘nuclear power is the only green solution’.
Hardly surprising from the always pro-nuclear Lovelock, but the article’s release was well timed. A number of high-profile greenies followed Lovelock’s lead with cautious, and in some cases enthusiastic, endorsement of this once reviled technology. The list of converts is startling... It is clear that most greens that favour nuclear power are motivated less by a genuine enthusiasm than by overwhelming terror of a looming climate catastrophe. Their convictions are rooted in a desperate pessimism.
After all, the arguments against nuclear are as valid today as they were 20 years ago at the peak of the anti-nuclear movement. The technology is still extremely dangerous; relies on dwindling supplies of uranium; and remains so costly that massive government subsidies are required. It is also vulnerable to terrorism; can feed weapons proliferation; and produces volumes of toxic waste with no satisfactory storage solution.
The wind that has shifted in the industry’s favour is the desire of governments to be less reliant upon increasingly pricey oil imports from volatile regions of the world and concern over fossil-fuelled climate degradation. Many governments look set to fail to meet their meagre greenhouse-gas reduction commitments set out under the Kyoto Protocol. This shines a new and more flattering light on the nuclear power industry. Every pro-nuclear organization now touts the technology’s carbon-free credentials. The visitors centre at the Sellafield reprocessing facility on Britain’s West Cumbrian coastline, has almost as much exhibition space devoted to climate change as to nuclear science. Global warming has given the industry such a PR boost that if climate change didn’t exist, the industry would want to invent it. As British columnist George Monbiot acidly observed: ‘For 50 years, nuclear power has been a solution in search of a problem.’
Tagiau Technorati: Ynni niwclear | John Houghton | Newid hinsawdd.
