nuclear-news

The Anti-Lynas movement: Are we being unreasonable? – Jeyakumar Devaraj, The Malaysian Insider , 13 Dec 12  Dr Jeyakumar Devaraj is a PSM central committee member and MP for Sungai Siput.”………..In any case, the IAEA team made 11 recommendations to ensure the safety of the Lynas Refinery, and one among these is that the manner in which solid waste will be managed should be submitted by Lynas and approved by AELB before Lynas is given approval to commence operation. However the Temporary Operating License approved on 7/2/2012 allows Lynas to start operations even before they present their proposed plan for comprehensive management of the solid waste – the TOL only requires them to submit the waste management plan within 10 months of starting operations!!

Ten months have passed, and a safe permanent depository has yet to be identified and agreed upon by all parties. Instead Lynas is still talking of rendering the waste “safe”.

In a statement on Monday, Lynas said it would convert LAMP’s water leach purification (WLP) residue which contains a low-level of naturally occurring radioactive material , into a commercially safe product called “synthetic aggregate”. Lynas also said that the plant to convert the WLP had been built in LAMP and was now ready for operation.

From information such as this I have come to the following conclusions

• We still do not know the full health effects of low level radiation. The assumptions of the IAEA are obviously off the mark – they underestimate the adverse effects.

• The Lynas Management has not been honest with us from the start. They have tried to bluff about health issues – they kept the safety features that were required of them in Australia from us; they tried to make us believe that they could render the solid waste non-radioactive and therefore safe.

• The Lynas management were able to avoid a Detailed Environmental Impact Assessment before the project was approved because they managed to mislead our authorities that the material being refined was not radioactive – they intended to ensure that the concentration of the ore sent to Malaysia didn’t proceed to the extent that rendered the ore more radioactive than the 1 Becquerel per gram threshold.

• The Malaysian Authorities are either very gullible or not terribly competent. Or else, they are on the take!

Given all the uncertainties, is it fair to expose the people of Kuantan to this rare earth refinery? I still am not 100% sure that it will definitely cause harm. But can we take the risk and make the several thousands of Malaysians there the Guinea Pigs?

We should practice the “Precautionary Principle”.

If there is a risk that a particular course of action might bring adverse effects, then one should consider not embarking on that action unless there are very compelling reasons for doing so.This is why I have argued several times in Parliament that the Lynas Project should be shelved. And as there was an element of attempting to withhold information and mislead our government authorities by Lynas, the quantum of compensation should be modest if at all! http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/the-anti-lynas-movement-are-we-being-unreasonable-dr-jeyakumar-devaraj