Lynas to stay on
Government gives plant a clean bill of health.
PROTEST against the Lynas rare earth refinery operating in Gebeng, Kuantan, has gone quiet in recent years but it was ignited after the plant’s operating licence was renewed for another three years.
Prior to the renewal in September, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed gave the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) a clean bill of health.
He said it had no negative repercussions on local residents and the environment.
Mustapa said concerns expressed by anti-Lynas protesters a few years ago turned out to be unwarranted.
He said 24-hour monitoring of radiation levels in the vicinity did not show any increase in radiation levels while claims that residents would get cancer, property prices would drop and the Balok river would become polluted simply did not happen.
Lynas Corp chief executive officer Amanda Lacaze said that the company now has hard data from the more than three years of LAMP’s operation.
This did not sit well with antiLynas protest groups who are still not convinced there is no pollution.
In a joint statement, groups such as Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas (SMSL), Himpunan Hijau, Stop Lynas Coalition and local assemblymen claimed Lacaze was misleading the people by trying to portray that LAMP was safe.
“As of June 2016, the toxic radioactive Lynas plant has produced and piled up 93.3 million kg of radioactive wastes in the form of water leach purification (WLP), 133,000 kg of thorium and 8,000 kg of uranium in our backyard. They have breached international stand- ards and regulations by not having a permanent disposal facility (PDF) in place,” said SMSL chairman Tan Bun Teet.
Asked how he came up with the numbers, Tan said they were extrapolated.
Lacaze, on the other hand, asserted Lynas had fulfilled its commitments regarding waste management and a PDF.
“The internationally recognised best practice in dealing with residues is to reuse the material in commercial applications, rather than to retain the material in long term storage. Given the success to date of Lynas’ residue commercialisation programmes, the aim of Lynas is to ensure that material is reused safely, not stored in a PDF,” she said in a September email to The Star.
Lacaze added, however, that in accordance with regulatory requirements, Lynas had lodged with the regulatory authorities a PDF siting plan and planning framework.
“In the meantime, material will continue to be stored on site at LAMP in storage facilities that meet the design requirements of accepted permanent deposit facilities, including the materials used in construction and the management of the material,” she said.
According to Lynas’ 2016 annual report, a successful programme of field trials has been conducted using solid residue material from the LAMP in soil additives and fertilisers.
It said the trials demonstrated the efficacy of the residue material in enhancing soil structure, adjusting soil pH, enhancing growth and improving yields.
Tan pointed out that Lynas did not state which category of waste would be commercialised.
“There’s no denying that the other two non-radioactive wastes can be commercialised but I do not believe the same can be said of the WLP. I am very concerned about this because you can’t turn a radioactive material into non-radioactive,” he said.
At a sports carnival held by Lynas here recently, Lacaze said no matter what the company did, those opposed to the LAMP’s operation would never be happy.
Nevertheless, Lacaze was open to Mustapa’s suggestion to hold a forum to engage the public on Lynas’ latest developments.