By : SHAZWAN MUSTAFA KAMAL
AUSTRALIAN miner Lynas Corp has maintained that waste from its planned rare earth refinery in Gebeng will not be hazardous, and that the radioactive residue can be recycled for 'commercial applications'.
The company also stressed that dregs from its RM2.3 billion refinery will not require 'long-term storage', in response to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s announcement on Friday that its rare earth waste disposal site will be relocated away from the Gebeng area and local communities.
“Lynas is absolutely confident that any residues from the Lynas Advanced Material Plant (LAMP) may be recycled and will have commercial applications, so will not require long term storage,” a Lynas spokesperson told The Malaysian Insider.
“In the event that commercial applications cannot be found for some products which will have very low levels of radioactivity, the stringent rules, standards and conditions of the temporary operating licence (TOL) are quite clear and Lynas has every confidence it will meet those stringent standards,” added the spokesperson.
Company officials have previously told The Malaysian Insider that the waste can be recycled into gypsum while any remaining radioactive residue can be stored at its on-site storage dump, which has a capacity for six years’ of remnants from the production cycle.
Najib earlier directed Lynas to site its waste storage at a remote and unpopulated area.
The Australian miner’s refinery in Gebeng has caused a controversy over its lack of plans for a permanent waste disposal. Anti-Lynas lobby group Himpunan Hijau 2.0 has demanded Najib state where Lynas Corp’s rare earth waste disposal site will be relocated to, claiming that it was 'impossible' for a 'safe' location anywhere in the country.
On February 26, Najib said the Lynas refinery was scientifically and factually safe.
But he said the directive to relocate the waste storage site was made after taking into consideration the psychological and emotional effects on the community.
When asked whether Lynas Corp had already identified a location for the refinery’s waste disposal, the spokesperson said “it is a work in progress.”
“We have not come to that stage yet. The prime minister has made the announcement, now we will have to work closely with the government and take it from there,” he said.
Thousands of anti-Lynas protestors attended an opposition-backed mass rally organised by Himpunan Hijau last weekend in the single largest protest yet against the rare earth refinery that is expected to fire up operations later this year.
Critics of the Lynas refinery want the government to halt its construction and direct the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) to reverse a decision to grant Lynas a temporary operating licence (TOL), which will let it embark on a two-year trial run.
They allege that the Australian miner has not given enough assurances on how it will handle the low-level radioactive waste that will be produced at the refinery.
They further assert that plans for an off-site storage location for the refinery’s waste material 'is totally senseless' and reflected 'a shallow understanding of the ecological system and blatant disrespect of the natural environment.'
The government has been under pressure from groups to shut down the rare earth project over safety fears. But Putrajaya has stood its ground on the project that was first earmarked for Terengganu.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai told the Sin Chew Daily this week that Lynas will have to send the waste back to Australia even though the Western Australian government has said it will not take back the residue from the ore mined from Mount Weld in the state.
But anti-Lynas groups have charged that Malaysia risks breaching international laws if it ships Lynas Corp’s rare earth waste out of the country.
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