GEORGE TOWN: Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) and the Consumers' Association of Penang (CAP) voiced their serious concerns over the government’s decision to allow Australian rare earth company Lynas Corporation to continue its operations for another six months.
The two non-governmental organisations also voiced their concerns over the rare-earth mining company’s radioactive wastes remaining in the country.
In a joint statement SAM president Meenakshi Raman and CAP acting president Mohideen Abdul Kader said the government's decision meant that, once again, another toxic legacy was being created for future generations to suffer.
This was in addition to the existing hazardous radioactive wastes being stored in the Kledang Range in Perak, from the Asian Rare Earth plant.
"The government says the Lynas decision was made following the Australian government and the Western Australian state government’s statement to Malaysia that it would not accept the Water Leach Purification (WLP) radioactive residue produced by Lynas to be sent back there.
"It is obvious the Australian government considers the Lynas waste to be too toxic for it to accept. Surely, what is an unacceptable threat to the Australian people and environment should also be considered a similar threat to people’s health and environment in Malaysia.
"Instead, by allowing Lynas to continue its operations in Malaysia, the country has again become a dumping ground for radioactive wastes, which will remain hazardous for generations to come, as the thorium and uranium in the WLP wastes have very long half-lives of millions and billions of years," they said today.
Meenakshi and Mohideen said the government had allowed the company to continue its operations for six months, subject to conditions, which give rise to further questions and concerns.
One of the conditions is that Lynas secures a Permanent Disposal Facility (PDF) for its radioactive wastes. However, the government press release does not specify when the wastes are to be transferred from its temporary site to the PDF.
"Importantly, there is need for an Environmental Impact Assessment and the Radiological Impact Assessment to be done following our laws, which has to be subject to public consultation and approval.
"There should not be any compromise for these to be properly done, or any effort to rush through these processes without all the safety concerns being addressed.
"At the very least, the Lynas operations should have been suspended until the PDF is in place, as it has already accumulated 580,000 tonnes of radioactive wastes. With every day of operations, more and more radioactive wastes will be generated daily," they claimed.
Another condition was for Lynas to come up with a plan to build a cracking and leaching facility (CLF) abroad, and to transfer the cracking and leaching process away from its plant in Gebeng, Kuantan. The material which Lynas will bring to its Malaysian plant will not contain radioactive material.
"However, this facility abroad will become operational only within four years, from the effective licencing date, according to the government's press release.
"We are unable to understand why the government has given Lynas four years to make the CLF abroad operational. This effectively means that the company will be allowed to generate another four years of radioactive wastes until the operations shift to Australia.
"Presumably, these additional wastes will be also disposed off in the PDF, which in effect means that at least close to 1 million tonne of radioactive wastes will have to be managed for decades, if not centurie, to come.
The duo urged the government to clarify the total costs of addressing the wastes, including the costs of cleaning up of the temporary storage site, the cost of acquiring, preparing and building the permanent disposal site, the cost of maintaining the site for decades to come, and the opportunity cost of not being able to make use of land in the vicinity of the site.
The government, Meenakshi and Mohideen said, should also make it clear that it was Lynas that would have to bear these costs of addressing the waste problem.
"In this regard, the government statement does not make this very clear and such a condition should be contained in the formal agreement between Lynas and the government. It should not be the case of Malaysians paying for the cost of addressing the wastes.
"In conclusion, we continue to have concerns and questions over allowing the plant to continue operations in Malaysia, the process and time frame for shifting the waste to the PDF, whether the company will bear the costs of adequately addressing the waste disposal, and the long period before the cracking and leaching operations are transferred out from the Malaysian plant.
"We reiterate our call for the suspension of the Lynas operations until these issues are resolved properly and transparently," they added.