Bukit Merah Catastrophe Revisited (a pictorial essay)

Asian Rare Earth Sdn Bhd - a joint venture involving Mitsubishi Chemical Industries Ltd (35%), Beh Minerals (35%), Lembaga Urusan dan Tabung Haji or the state-owned Pilgrims' Management Fund Board (20%) and other bumiputra businessmen (10%) - began operations in 1982 soon after Mahathir Mohamad became prime minister. It took the residents of Bukit Merah more than 10 years of unrelenting struggle to get this lethally hazardous operation shut down. In the process, community leaders at the forefront of the protest against ARE were even arrested and detained under the obnoxious ISA by order of the vindictive home minister, Mahathir Mohamad...

CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS 

IN THE ASIAN RARE EARTH DEBACLE

And now, under the nefarious Najib Razak, history is about to repeat itself...

unless we topple this lethally hazardous, ecocidal and utterly corrupt BN regime!

[First posted 3 March 2012]

Najib's insane ambition to go nuclear is another reason to vote out Barisan Najis!

Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant before 11 March 2011

How local democracy shut down Japan’s nuclear power plants

Fearing a public backlash at local polls, no local government would dare to re-start a reactor in their locality now. Anil Netto interviews Ohashi Masaaki.

Scholar-activist Prof Ohashi Masaaki  

In a lesson for countries everywhere, Japan’s vibrant local democracy is sealing the fate of the country’s once-entrenched network of nuclear power plants.

After the Fukushima disaster on 11 March 2011, the nuclear energy industry in Japan came under intense public scrutiny. Japan has 54 nuclear reactors in 17 locations. Already 52 reactors (including the eight in Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power Station, four of which were damaged or had serious problems) have been stopped while the remaining two are coming up for periodic inspection.

Visting Japanese scholar-activist Ohashi Masaaki stresses that local government consent is essential for any reactor to be restarted. “This is the nice part of decentralisation,” says the professor of international development, NGO studies and South Asia studies at Keisen University, looking relaxed in his hotel room at the end of a whirlwind speaking tour to universities in Kuala Lumpur and Penang. “Although the central government wants to have a nuclear reactor, the local government has a right to say ‘No.’"

[Read the whole story here.]

Tokyo Soil Samples Would Be Considered Nuclear Waste In The U.S. ~ Arnie Gundersen

Arnold "Arnie" Gundersen is chief engineer of energy consulting company Fairewinds Associates and a former nuclear power industry executive, and who has questioned the safety of the Westinghouse AP1000, a proposed third-generation nuclear reactor. Gundersen has also expressed concerns about the operation of the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. He served as an expert witness in the investigation of the Three Mile Island accident. [Source: Wikipedia]

Only the clinically insane or terminally greedy would continue advocating nuclear fission plants! Najib must be both...

Opposition to Lynas escalates on all fronts...

Anti-Lynas Himpunan Hijau 2.0 in Kuantan, Pahang, 26 February 2012 (photo: Malaysiakini)

PETALING JAYA: The Anti-Nuclear Alliance of Western Australia (ANAWA) has revealed that Lynas Corporation Ltd was supposed to build its plant in Western Australia and not Malaysia.

According to ANAWA, Lynas’ 14-year-old blueprint indicated that the Australian mining giant had orginally planned to build its processing plant in Meenar a decade ago. But until today there had been no signs of any development on the intended site.

ANAWA spokesperson Marcus Atkinson told FMT that the orginal approvals were given by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for Lynas to ship rare earth to buyers and confirmed that he had viewed these relevant documents firsthand.

Under pressure: Nick Curtis, Lynas CEO (TMI)

However, he said that Lynas had since made numerous alterations to its operations to the point that its rare earth refinery had now landed in Malaysia.

“Instead of transporting processed rare earth, it is now shipping a concentrate which contains thorium and other radioactive material with more heavy metals,” he told FMT.

Atkinson admitted that they had been more focused on Lynas’ operations in Australia until the uproar in Malaysia reached their ears and they realised that Lynas’ had made “massive” changes to its plans.

“Now it involves Malaysia and our moral responsibility,” he said. “This is a complete change to the original project hence why we are urging the EPA to review Lynas’ approvals.”

ANAWA and Australia’s Environmental Defenders Office (EDO) lodged a referral with the EPA this morning calling on the latter to reopen the project and revisit Lynas’ “outdated” approvals.

Atkinson had yesterday raised deep concerns over the amount of radioactive material being transported from Mount Weld to Fremantle Port for export and called for stronger regulations to be put in place to ease the fears of the surrounding community.

He had also drawn attention to the fact that Lynas had sparked off Malaysia’s largest environmental campaign with its RM2.5 billion Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) in Gebeng, Kuantan.

The nationwide Himpunan Hijau 2.0 rally held on March 26 saw more than 15,000 people gathering to demand that Lynas be ousted from Kuantan.

Less stringent laws

Atkinson added that ANAWA and EDO strongly believed that Lynas had chosen to move its operations to Malaysia because of the heavy metals and radioactive waste involved in the processing.

“We believe Lynas picked Malaysia to save money and enable it to operate under less stringent laws,” he stated.

“The biggest concerns about the processing are the storage and waste management issues which are made more difficult in Gebeng which we understand to be wetlands.”

Asked if Lynas would be allowed to operate in the same manner and with the same liberty in Western Australia as in Gebeng, Atkinson firmly replied in the negative. “There is no way it could operate the way it is in Malaysia over here,” he said. “Australia’s laws are much more stringent.”

Atkinson issued a further call for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to be scrutinised for downplaying the levels of radioactivity soon to be produced by Lynas’ operations.

“Just because the radioactive elements fall below the IAEA’s levels it doesn’t mean that the products don’t contain any radioactivity,” he pointed out.

EDO and its lawyers would also be issuing a letter to Lynas today urging it to stop any plans for the exportation of rare earth until the EPA reached a decision following the referral submission.

The EPA was expected to revert to ANAWA and EDO within 28 days on whether it would reopen the case or if Lynas’ current approvals were good enough.

“If they refuse to review the project then we will file a court case against it,” Atkinson promised.

Lynas’ letter of undertaking

Poet Laureate Samad Said (second from left)
at Himpunan Hijau 2.0

Meanwhile in another development, International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed said today that Lynas had given the government a letter of undertaking to send its rare earth processing residue abroad if it cannot find a suitable waste disposal site in Malaysia.

The Star Online reported Mustapa as saying that the move was taken as an assurance to the people’s psychological and emotional safety.

“Even though the government is satisfied there will be no radioactive residue produced during the plant’s operation, we have ordered Lynas to guarantee and plan the provision of a permanent waste disposal facility far from human population as recommended by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“Failing which, Lynas has already expressed willingness to take the residue out of Malaysia,” he said in a joint statement with Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob in Kuantan.

The report also quoted the minister as saying that the Western Australia Resources Minister Norman Moore had confirmed on Feb 29 that the rare earth’s radiation level was very low. “The fact is, the rare earth does not need to be controlled by Australia because it is not dangerous but in Malaysia, AELB is overseeing the project after considering the public’s opinion,” he added.

Mustapa said the government was urging Lynas to take extra care for the sake of the people, and not because of “threats by Himpunan Hijau” which had said it would hold another anti-Lynas rally if the government refuse to shut down the project.

LYNAS MUST GO!

Interviews following ANAWA/EDO submission of appeal to WA EPA today (audio recording)

30-minute overview of a looming disaster called Lynas

Gilbert Almeida poses some intelligent questions with distractingly theatrical affectation - while Fuziah Salleh is entirely credible and convincing with her clear, concise responses. This feisty level-headed MP for Kuantan is one of the brightest silver linings in the dark and ominous Lynas cloud that hangs over the people Pahang.

This 30-minute interview presents an excellent summary and overview of the atrocious Lynas rare refinery project. Another hideous long-term curse brought upon Malaysians by the morally deformed Umno/BN regime.

Are Lynas and Umno/BN merely insensitive... or ABSOLUTELY INSANE?

Serious flooding during the recent monsoon season in the immediate vicinity of the
nearly-completed Lynas rare earth refinery in Gebeng, Pahang

Key contractor pulled out of Lynas plant due to safety concerns, says NYT
By Shannon Teoh | The Malaysian Insider
February 01, 2012

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 1 – A Dutch chemical firm refused to supply crucial resins for Lynas Corp’s controversial RM2.5 billion rare earth plant in Kuantan due to safety concerns, according to the New York Times.

The influential newspaper cited engineers working for the Australian miner at the Gebeng industrial zone site and internal company e-mails as saying that AkzoNobel withdrew after it was told that the fibreglass liners using its resin would be installed in concrete-walled tanks that have a problem with rising dampness in the floors and cracks in the walls.

Proposed Lynas rare earth refinery flooded
on 13 January 2012 (courtesy of SMSL)

“AkzoNobel had been in discussions about the problem of rising dampness, but only became aware of the cracks this autumn,” the daily reported.

The resins were to be used to glue together dozens of fibreglass liners for concrete-walled tanks the size of double-decker buses where hundreds of tons of rare earths with low levels of radiation will be mixed with extremely corrosive acids at more than 93 degrees Celcius.

The company had said early last year it would supply chemicals for the Lynas project, which has raised fears of radiation pollution among local residents and environmentalists, only if it were certain that it would be safe.

LAMP waste water discharge point flooded  
in December 2011 after two days of heavy rain (SMSL)

In a report last June, the NYT had said that there were critical flaws in the design of the refinery, including the installation of the watertight fibreglass liners.

It said that memos showed Lynas pressed a Malaysian contractor, Cradotex, to proceed with the installation of watertight fibreglass liners designed for the containment tanks without fixing the moisture problem and with limited fixes to the walls.

“These issues have the potential to cause the plant’s critical failure in operation,” Peter Wan, the general manager of Cradotex, said in a June 20 memo obtained by the newspaper.

“More critically, the toxic, corrosive and radioactive nature of the materials being leached in these tanks, should they leak, will most definitely create a contamination issue."

[Read the full story here.]

Are Lynas and Umno/BN utterly insane? The rare earth refinery is located in a flood-prone zone!