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    20 June 2012| last updated at 09:46AM

    PSC report is experts' opinion: Najib



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    KUALA LUMPUR: The Parliamentary Select Committee's (PSC) report on the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) project is not a propaganda but an expert opinion, view and finding from experts and contained scientic facts.

    PSC chairman Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin said the committee's reports were not based on assumption or perception but purely information and facts put forward by a group of interlectuals and experts.

    "It is not based on sentiments or perception like what those who are opposing the LAMP project are doing. So, claims that the report was blindly accepted as a propaganda, is baseless and done with ill intention," he told the Dewan Rakyat when winding speech on the PSC report today.

    Mohamed Khaled who is also the Higher Education Minister said the committee had taken the initiative to analyse all problems and issues related to the LAMP project and the Asian Rare Earth (ARE) site in Bukit Merah to determine any possibility of dangers to health, posed by radioactive material.  

    The PSC has found, based on scientific facts, that LAMP has much lower health risks compared with mines, Asian Rare Earth (ARE), torium procession plants and nuclear plants.

    On residue management, the committee was satisfied that LAMP fulfilled all legal requirements, safety standards and international procedures.

    The report had recommended that the Lynas plant be given a temporary operating licence (TOL) as it has met all requirements.

    The panel came up with 31 recommendations based on public hearing sessions, a working visit to the plant and expert views, among others.

    Asked when the factory can be forced to cease operations, Mohamed Khaled said the company can be closed if there was a breach in the terms of the TOL or when the radioactive released exceeded the permitted 1 mSV (millisievert) a year level.

    "The government has also set US$50 million (RM155 million) as a deposit to manage waste disposal of radioactive material in the event that the factory was closed," he said.

    After six hours of deliberation and debate, the committee report was accepted. -- BERNAMA

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