nuclear-news

However , it told the Consumer Association of Penang that some radiation levels could be justified.

The nine-member IAEA panel is here to gauge the safety of the Lynas rare earth refinery in Kuantan.

CAP vice-president Mohideen Abdul Kader told reporters after meeting the IAEA panel that they had agreed to carry out a cost-benefit analysis before allowing the plant to start operations.

Mohideen also said that the IAEA’s radiation standards were merely an “international consensus”  as studies had not found a safe level of radiation.

He also cited a study from the National Academy of Science which said that one out of five workers would suffer from cancer if exposed to what the IAEA deemed an allowable radiation level.

“The panel said there should be sufficient justification for the project,” said Mohideen, “as their standards are not based on what is safe but how great the benefit.”

Earlier in the day, the panel met with the Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) The panel gave no assurance that the radioactive waste produced by the refinery would be removed from the site, said Fomca research and policy executive Foon Weng Lian.

Fomca met with the panel to insist that no thorium – the radioactive element found in virtually all rare earth deposits – be stored at the plant being constructed in the Gebeng industrial zone in Kuantan…….http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2011/06/02/theres-no-safe-radiation-level/