Remove the politics when dealing with the Lynas issue

TO understand the Lynas issue, it is worthwhile to understand several concepts. There are naturally occurring radioactive elements in the environment. They are present in the soil, rocks and even in our gardens, albeit in small quantities. These naturally occurring radioactive elements partly contribute to background radiation.

Lynas digs up soil in Australia and extracts the rare earth elements in Malaysia. After extraction, the residue naturally contains small quantities of radioactive elements. This is not specific to Lynas; it also occurs with other types of mining, and in the oil and gas industry. Somehow these other industries have been left off the hook of stringent reviews.

Fortunately, radiation can be detected and quantified. The radiation from Lynas is very low, so much so that there is no change to the background radiation. Apparently, the radiation their workers are exposed to is even less than what a pilot would be exposed to. Scientists have also consistently mentioned that Lynas is a low-risk operation. Till now, there has been no evidence of dangerous radiation.

Without any evidence of harmful radiation, it is puzzling why many still believe it is a threat to the country.

This is supposed to be a straightforward mining business that chose Malaysia to invest in. Unfortunately, politics gets in the way.

Following the Fukushima incident in Japan (in 2011 when a tsunami caused a meltdown in the nuclear plant and radiation leaked out), the Lynas issue was played up to the hilt by the then opposition prior to the 13th general election. Now they cannot backtrack without some humiliation.

Instead of fighting Lynas, I feel Malaysia should focus on building a rare earth industry. Rare earth materials are used in mobile phones, electric cars and many other advanced technology.

Currently, we are the only main rare earth producer outside China. We should be promoting our country as an alternative to China, especially with the current US-China trade war that has companies looking for alternatives.

With regard to the residue, or “radioactive waste”, as Lynas opponents like to call it, produced at Lynas, it actually contains very little radioactive material. The residue actually still looks like soil. I do not see why it cannot be recycled into useful products like a road base or cement.

To resolve the Lynas issue, one has to remove politics from it. Malaysia has a lot to gain from Lynas and building up a rare earth industry.