KUALA LUMPUR: Lynas Corporation Ltd should accept the fact that the Malaysian government has changed and does not work the same way as before.
Kuantan member of parliament Fuziah Salleh advised Lynas to abide by the decision which has been made by the current Malaysian government, especially in how it handles its radioactive waste.
“They need to accept that our government has changed and they cannot be treating the instructions given to them the same way they were doing with the previous government. They need to abide by the Malaysian government’s instructions in managing the radioactive waste,” she said after launching the Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department’s Food Bank programme at Masjid Jamek.
On Lynas’ deadline to export stockpiles of waste product from its processing plant by Sept 2 to the country of origin, which is Australia, when its licence is due for renewal, Fuziah said if there should be an extension to the deadline, it would depend on the Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry.
“However as the MP for Kuantan, I would suggest Lynas not to increase radioactive waste from the existing amount. They should not be allowed to generate any more waste until the existing material is sent back to the country of origin,” she said.
In Parliament earlier, Deputy Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis said the ministry had formed a special task force to assists Lynas in removing Water Leach Purification (WLP) waste from Malaysia.
She said the ministry had also informed the Australian authorities through an official letter dated Feb 26.
This, she said, was to inform Canberra that the corporation needed to send back the WLP to Australia and also to speed up the process of Lynas getting approval from the Australian government for the purpose. -- Reporting by Beatrice Nita Jay, Nur Amira Syafiqa, Nadhira Farlina and Norashikin Azizan