Lynas: Time bomb has started ticking, says PAS
| Harakahdaily, | 02 February 2012 |
Feb 2: “The time-bomb has started ticking," said Pahang PAS commissioner Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man upon learning that the Atomic Energy Licensing Board had issued a temporary operating license to controversial rare-earth refinery operator Lynas.
“If anything bad happens, think of the fate of 300,000 Kuantan residents, the rivers and the sea as well as the palm oil refinery located 2 km from the plant?
"Todate, people still don’t understand why the government is willing to approve such a risky project. With the TOL license yesterday, the time-bomb has started ticking. Don’t wait for things to happen only to regret later,” he said.
Late yesterday, the Atomic Energy Licensing Board issued a statement saying its board members had during 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.
However, Tuan Ibrahim (right) said the exercise proved to be futile.
“What’s the meaning of people’s feedback if the government does not take them seriously?” he asked.
Dutch firm's withdrawal
The PAS information chief also urged the government to come clean on the safety of the Lynas plant following the withdrawal of a key contractor which supplied crucial resins to the rare earth refinery.
In its report, the New York Times said that Dutch firm AkzoNobel had withdrawn from the project, with engineers casting serious doubts on Lynas plant's safety.
“Engineers involved in the project and internal emails showed that AkzoNobel withdrew from supplying the chemicals after it was told that the fiberglass liners would be installed in concrete-walled tanks that have a problem with rising dampness in the floors and cracks in the walls.
“AkzoNobel had been in discussions about the problem of rising dampness, but only became aware of the cracks recently,” added the report.
AkzoNobel supplies important resins that function as glue for dozens of fibreglass liners for concrete-walled tanks that can withstand heat and corrosion. Rare earths with low levels of radioactive contamination measuring hundreds of tonnes is mixed in the tanks with extremely corrosive acids at more than 90 degrees Celsius.
Corrosion at high temperatures makes the acids ideal in dissolving the ore. However, this method is reportedly unstable.
“(AkzoNobel's) withdrawal from the Lynas project has raised public concern on the safety and health issues surrounding the plant,” said Tuan Ibrahim, who described AELB's decision as strange.
He reiterated that the only way the plant can now be stopped was to vote Pakatan Rakyat into power.
“It seems this is the only way for us to save residents of Kuantan and Gebeng and the surrounding areas from Lynas’s time-bomb which is now activated,” he said.
Kuantan member of parliament Fuziah Salleh (left) meanwhile said if the NYT report was true, and should any incident takes place at the plant due to the design of the plant, the Barisan Nasional government and AELB would be held accountable.
“A responsible government puts the people’s safety as priority and would have warned Lynas that license cannot be granted unless all the conditions for processing radioactive wastes in the form of Permanent Disposal Facility (PDF) are met,” she stressed.
Earlier, it was reported that Lynas plans to permanently dump non-recyclable radioactive wastes from the plant at a permanent disposal facility in Pahang.
According to e-zine Merdeka Review, 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.
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