Lynas wants to dump wastes on island off Pahang
Koh Jun Lin | Malaysiakini
10:38AM Jan 27, 2012
Australian company Lynas Corporation, which intends to open its rare earth materials refining plant in Gebeng, near Kuantan, soon, wants radioactive solid wastes from the plant to be dumped on an uninhabited island off the coast of Pahang.
Alternatively, the wastes may be disposed off in an area where there is no development, said Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh, who has been campaigning against the rare earth plant.
“They say that they have not identified the location of the Permanent Disposal Facility (PDF), but they are considering a few options.
One option is an island off the coast of Pahang that is uninhabited,” she said when contacted.
The PDF is intended for the plant’s solid waste stream, which is classified as radioactive wastes.
The other two waste streams also contain radioactive materials, but have not been classified as radioactive and Lynas intends to recycle and commercialise these.
‘Radioactive materials can leach into the sea’
Voicing her strong opposition to the proposal, Fauziah yesterday handed over a written submission to the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) in Kuantan.
“This must never be allowed as the materials from the PDF can leach into the sea,” her submission states.
“Considering that radionuclides have a half-life of 14 billion years, it is feared that the leachate will harm marine life a few hundred years down the road.”
As for the alternative, she told Malaysiakini, “Basically, it will have to be in the jungle. But you don’t even know... there will come a day when the future generations want to develop that land”.
The government, Fuziah added, should follow the examples of other countries, where waste disposal facilities are the responsibility of the state. This especially so, because Lynas only plans to be in Malaysia for about 20 years.
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| Outspoken Kuantan MP and PKR vice-president Fuziah Salleh has been spearheading the campaign to stop Lynas before anyone even heard about this sneaky project |
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| Press conference in Kuantan on 26 January 2012 after handing over a 4-page joint memorandum by the Stop Lynas Coalition and Save Malaysia Stop Lynas to the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) and the Ministry of Science, Technology and Industry (MOSTI) |
This Lynas impending disaster is only causing concern to PKR and maybe some local Kuantan well informed responsible not sleeping residents ( plus some faraway social political bloggers )
ReplyDeleteTypical of human behavior where the long term ill effects or not to a particular community are of no consequence to the present individuals or to those far far away (such as JB/Ipoh/timbuktu) who are only interested in their own selfish immediate benefits/handouts.
Ask anybody in KL/Penang and nearly all will say Lynas who, what ?
Sad, as Lim Kit Siang/Anwar will say - I have more important things to do, such as toppling the present evil regime.
Maybe that is the most effective & timely cure all pill to relieve Malaysia of further Lynas/TBH/Altantuya/cowgate/rosmahshoppe etc etc etc ad naus type of trajedies
Down with BN !
Waste that has no known method of treating and need to be kept in Malaysia forever. Unless there is vested and conflict of interest, nobody will approve it to be built. Yet it is approved and given tax bracket of 12 years is clear strong circumstantial evidence of corruption.
ReplyDeleteYes, we need to get rid of the present administration but we cannot wait for the politicians who cannot be trusted, something stronger need to be done by the Kuantan PPL and all Malaysian. Sadly so far the voice of the ppl directly affected by it are too few and too soft.
And when it's conclusively proven not to be a problem as it's cramping up under supervision, suddenly everyone will realize who was the only one to gain from pushing this miss leading frea campaign...
ReplyDeleteIt's so sad that not majority of the population are in support of this anti lynas issue, thinking they won't be affected.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing, isn't it hypocrisy that the country wants to 'go green' and protect the environment when this rare earth plant is going to be millions of times worse than plastic bags and what not. What's the point of protecting the environment of Msia when this rare earth plant is going to destroy the environment permanently?
@AntiFuziah - Lynas ass-kisser! Are you that idiot from MCA who's been badmouthing decent citizens whose well-being is under threat? Or just another overpaid Umno cybertrooper who depends on Google to leave comments in English?
ReplyDeleteantares,
ReplyDeletethoz your retort above was directed at rockihairterriblis or that tonyutoytoy fler
there seem to be so many of them asslicking kocksucking cheapskates nowsadays
~sigh~
The people of the Kuantan metropolitan area are united in opposition to this looming disaster.
ReplyDeleteUMNO-BN kleptocrats have only themselves to blame for turning Kuantan into a Pakatan Rakyat stronghold !
Phua Kai Lit (Kuantan Boy, angry about this damned Lynas project)
So is this a go or is it going to be stopped?
ReplyDelete