Amid protests, Lynas allowed to begin operation
| Harakahdaily, | 01 February 2012 |
Feb 1: Even as the campaign against rare-earth refinery operator Lynas gathered momentum, the government today approved a temporary operating license (TOL) to the embattled Australian firm.
In a statement released today, director-general of the Atomic Energy Licensing Board Raja Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan said its board members in a meeting on Monday decided to issue the TOL to Lynas based on five conditions. 
The first three conditions pertain to the permanent disposal facility (PDF), of which AELB said Lynas must reveal a detailed plan for approval. The other two conditions state that the firm is to pay a US$50 million monetary guarantee to the Malaysian government, and the right of the board to appoint independent consultants at Lynas's expense.
According to the AELB, some 334 members of the public had participated in the public feedback exercise from January 3 to 26 to give their comments on Lynas's application to operate its rare earth refinery.
Today's approval comes amid a war of words between Lynas executive chairman Nicholas Curtis
and anti-Lynas campaigners spearheaded by Kuantan member of parliament Fuziah Salleh.
The decision to issue TOL also took place amid fears that the company plans to permanently dump non-recyclable radioactive wastes from the plant at a permanent disposal facility in Pahang.
Proposal to bury radioactive wastes
According to Lynas's report to AELB, three primary solid waste streams from its Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) are the Neutralisation Underflow (NUF), the Flue Gas Desulfurisation (FGD) and the Water Leach Purification (WLP) residues.
While the first two are non-radioactive and could be recycled, the WLP residue has to be disposed permanently by burying it in the proposed facility.
It was also revealed by e-zine Merdeka Review that Lynas had proposed that such a facility be put under institutional control for 300 years, with notices and detailed information put up on site warning the public from entering the facility.
It remains unclear whether the land for the facility, estimated at US$25 million, would be bought by Lynas or be allocated by the Pahang state government.
Radioactive waste management has been at the centre of the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) controversy.
Last month, Lynas resorted to advertisement in local newspapers to convince the public on the safety of its plant.
This followed an earlier revelation by Australia’s National Toxics Network that tailing ponds built by Lynas in Mount Weld would leak some 14,000 litres or five million litres of radioactive tailings waste.
Pakatan Rakyat members of parliament, including Kuantan's Fuziah Salleh, have been spearheading the opposition to the plant, alongside anti-Lynas groups such as Badar, Save Malaysia Stop Lynas and the Stop Lynas Coalition.
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