Locals say market won’t buy Lynas’ recycled waste, ww.themalaysianinsider.com/mobile/malaysia/article/locals-say-market-wont-buy-lynas-recycled-waste/ The Malaysian Insider ,21 April,  By Shannon Teoh KUALA LUMPUR, — Lynas Corp’s plans to recycle waste from its controversial RM2.5 billion rare earth plant in Kuantan into a commercial product will not be accepted by the market, local residents opposed to the refinery said today.(Jan 26 )

The Stop Lynas Coalition (SLC) and Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL) groups said in a joint submission to the government that the synthetic gypsum the Australian miner hopes to produces from its waste is the subject of an international safety campaign due to radiation fears.

“The use of phospho-gypsum plaster-board and plaster cement in buildings as a substitute for natural gypsum may constitute an additional source of radiation exposure to both workers and members of the public,” the document quoted from Internet-based environmental organisation Zero Waste America.
“The American Gypsum Association does not accept gypsum made with contaminated materials. Contaminated gypsum in the USA has resulted in a class action against the supplier and the importers,” the groups said.

The two residents groups presented the document today after the end of
the public viewing and feedback period for Lynas’ long-term waste
management plan that must be approved by regulators before it begins
operations.
Local residents and environmentalists have criticised Lynas Corp for
not having a long-term waste management plan and claimed the company
would store radioactive waste onsite, which is about 2km from the
nearest residential area.
But Lynas has said a permanent depository facility (PDF) for
radioactive waste from its controversial rare earth plant will only be
needed in a “worst-case scenario” where it is unable to reprocess its
waste into commercial products.
According to Lynas, refining rare earth ore from Mount Weld, West
Australia will result in three forms of residue, two of which have a
radiation level of below 1 Becquerel per gramme (Bq/g) which is
considered non-radioactive and outside of regulatory control by both
international and local authorities.
It plans to recycle these two wastes into synthetic gypsum and
fertiliser although the process has not been finalised.
However, its water leach purification (WLP) residue is projected to
have a radiation level of 6 Bq/g, regarded as “very low-level”
radioactive waste.
But Lynas, which received an additional funding boost of RM700 million
this week through the sale of bonds, says it is “very confident” it
can dilute the WLP to below 1 Bq/g to be used as a base in road
building.
The anti-Lynas groups also questioned today whether the market “can fully absorb the colossal amount produced given that Lynas will be producing at least 300,000 tonnes of contaminated waste every year.”
Putrajaya bowed to public pressure in April after sustained opposition
from local residents and environmentalists due to fears of radiation
pollution and put the project on ice pending a review by international
experts.
In July, the government agency adopted 11 recommendations set out by
the review and said it would not allow Lynas to begin operations or
import rare earth ore until all conditions, which include a
comprehensive, long-term and detailed plan for managing radioactive
waste, are met.
According to Lynas, regulators Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB)
will meet on January 30 to decide on whether to issue a pre-operating
licence which will be followed by a full licence within two years if
the plant meets safety requirements outlined in its application.
Lynas is anticipating a windfall of RM8 billion a year from 2013
onwards from the manufacture of rare earth metals that are crucial to
the manufacture of high-technology products such as smartphones,
hybrid cars and bombs.

ww.themalaysianinsider.com/mobile/malaysia/article/locals-say-market-wont-buy-lynas-recycled-waste/

“Lynas has no concrete radioactive waste management plan. Lynas claims it can store its waste onsite forever.

The Lynas plant, she added, would have 500 tonnes of liquid discharge per hour channelled into the Balok River.

Lynas whitewashing refinery safety concerns, says Fuziah, The Malaysian Insider, By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal April 16, 2012 KUALA LUMPUR,  — PKR’s Fuziah Salleh has accused Lynas Corp of whitewashing safety concerns of its planned refinery in Kuantan by claiming there is a “concerted political campaign” against the plant’s construction,
In response, Fuziah  accused the Lynas Corp head of “deviating” from the real issue of safety, saying that a simple comparative study showed the Lynas refinery did not support any form of “sustainable development.”

“They are not addressing concerns of safety, whitewashing safety concerns, silent about safety issues. “They have only addressed radiation aspects, external radiation… they are narrow-minded in terms of perspective of radiation,” the PKR vice-president told The Malaysian Insider.

Fuziah said comparing the planned Lynas plant in Gebeng, Pahang, the
Molycorp rare earths plant in Mt Pass, California, the Arafura plant
in Whyalla, Southern Australia and Ashton in Australia showed
“alarming stark contrasts.”

Unlike the Lynas plant, the other three refineries’ radioactive wastes are sent back to the respective mines.

“Lynas has no concrete radioactive waste management plan. Lynas claims it can store its waste onsite forever.

“It also claims to have completed research to commercialise the
radioactive waste from the various waste streams,” said Fuziah.

The Lynas plant, she added, would have 500 tonnes of liquid discharge per hour channelled into the Balok River.

Comparatively, Molycorp and Arafura had “zero liquid discharges”,
explained Fuziah.

“For Ashton, an estimated 10 per cent will leach into the ground.”

“He (Curtis) is patronising by saying that opposition to the plant
will hurt Malaysia’s investment.

“Just because you bring in revenue, it does not mean you can tell us
what to do,” she said.
Lynas must have the decorum to implement here the same stringent
standards that they have to practise in Australia,” said the PKR MP.

The High Court had last week ruled against a local resident group’s
attempt for a review of the government’s award of a temporary
operating licence for the RM700 million Lynas Advanced Materials Plant
(LAMP) in Gebeng.

Last Tuesday, Lynas Corp’s Malaysian subsidiary said the plant would
be ready to fire up operations in three weeks’ time.
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/lynas-whitewashing-refinery-safety-concerns-says-fuziah

They still have about 11 million tons to go, but the pace of the cleanup is about to slow down.

Portage Inc., the company set to take over the job April 29, has announced that it will suspend work on the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action project for three months each year during the term of its contract……

Graham is worried that the reduced funding for the project — the primary factor in Portage’s switch to a nine-month work schedule — will have an impact not only on the area’s economy but on the environment.

The initial plan called for the cleanup to be completed by 2019, Graham said.

“The rate they’re talking about at this moment means the pile would take another 17 years to move,” she said. ”That is unacceptable to us and we’re hoping it’s unacceptable to the people downriver from us.”

Metzler acknowledged that “the funding these days is probably not as much as some people in the community would like to see.”… The Grand County Council has signed a letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu that asks for at least another $5 million for the UMTRA project.

“There are 22 signees on to the letter,” Graham said. “So it’s not just little old Grand County down here kicking and screaming and throwing a temper tantrum. It’s lots of people, lots of organizations that are concerned with this slowdown.”  http://www.ksl.com/?nid=960&sid=19974549

Today, the government is the official custodian of this repository in Bukit Merah. This site in Bukit Merah is declared as a restricted and dangerous dump site for radioactive materials but a curtain of official silence has descended on it. Has the government not learnt from Bukit Merah?

The Lynas project is likely to be a replay of the ARE fiasco but on a much larger scale.

The benefits gained by Malaysia from the Lynas investment are very little relative to the risks involved. Whilst the profits of the project go to Lynas (untaxed) and the few Malaysian companies that are involved in the construction of and the provision of supplies to the Gebeng rare earth plant, the radioactive waste will remain in
Malaysian soil for hundreds of years.

Lynas issue: Not learning from bitter experience —The Malaysian Insider,  Richard Pendragon, April 12, 2012 “……..Bukit Merah The history of the rare earth industry in Malaysia is little known to most Malaysians. Most Malaysians in fact think that the Lynas project in Pahang is the first time Malaysia has been associated with this industry.
Few Malaysians actually know that there was a rare earth plant in Bukit Merah, Perak, which has been closed some 10 or more years ago, following a ruling by the High Court of Malaysia that the company involved was in negligence, and that the radioactive waste generated by the plant was dangerous and had to be removed and secured in a safe
place away from people for hundreds of years.

The evidence of the hazardous legacy of this rare earth plant is still present in our midst as a reminder to every one of the risks involved.
All you need is to take a trip to Bukit Merah and you will see the
existence of a restricted site where the toxic radioactive waste has
been stored in specially engineered concrete cells, and entombed
deeply in a repository, to prevent any leakage of radiation from the
radioactive waste for the next few hundred years.

The company that was involved in the rare earth plant was called Asian
Rare Earth Sdn Bhd (ARE). This was a joint venture established between
Mitsubishi Chemical Corp (MCC) of Japan, Beh Minerals Sdn Bhd, the
local partner and the government, through Tabung Haji in the early
nineties.

ARE was based in Menglembu, Ipoh and the joint venture was founded on
the basis that the local partner  would supply the raw materials
(tailings from the many tin mines in Perak) and MCC would provide the
technology and expertise to extract the rare earth minerals, by a
cracking process.

In this cracking process, along with the extraction of rare earth
minerals such as Monazite, Xenotime, Zircon, Yttrium etc, a waste
product called thorium hydroxide is produced and this substance is
radioactive.
Experts brought in to present evidence in support of the court hearing
against ARE testified that prolonged exposure to radiation leaked from
the radioactive waste materials from ARE’s rare earth plant would be
harmful to the health of the residents living in the Menglembu area,
where the plant was located.

ARE was subsequently closed and wound up.

The shareholders of the company had to engage a highly specialised
radioactive waste management consultancy firm from the US, called
Dames and Moore, to relocate, treat and dispose of the radioactive
waste from the dump site in Menglembu to a safe repository. The cost
of the whole exercise ran into hundreds of millions of US dollars to
contain radiation leak from the radioactive waste.

Meanwhile local residents have blamed the ARE refinery for the high
numbers of birth defects and leukaemia cases within the last five
years in a community of 11,000 — after many years of local history
with no leukaemia cases. Seven of the leukemia victims have died.

Some of the surviving residents of Bukit Merah are still plagued with severe health problems. Until this very day, the Malaysian authorities refuse to acknowledge that the radioactive waste was responsible for the sudden escalation of health problems among the residents

Today, the government is the official custodian of this repository in
Bukit Merah. This site in Bukit Merah is declared as a restricted and
dangerous dump site for radioactive materials but a curtain of
official silence has descended on it.
http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/lynas-issue-not-learning-from-bitter-experience-richard-pendragon

Dr David KL Quek, President, Malaysian Medical Association (MMA), May 26, 2011 One of the most contentious issues with the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant is the thorium (Th) by-product. Exposure to Thorium can cause cancer posing serious risks to workers at the LAMP and surrounding communities. Studies have shown that inhaling thorium dust causes an increased risk of developing lung cancer, and cancer of the pancreas. Bone cancer risk is also increased because thorium may be stored in bone. Thorium has a half life of 14 billion years and is easily transported and spread through wind and water.

Lynas will be processing 10 times the amount of ore compared to the ARE. Despite Lynas’ public proclamation of “Zero Harm” commitment there is no foolproof containment measures for such toxic residue for workers onsite at the LAMP. It should be noted that the ores that Chinese miners were exposed to in Bayun Obo Rare-Earth and Iron Mine
contained 400 ppm of thorium. The rare earth oxide concentrates that will be arriving shortly at Kuantan port will have 1600 ppm of thorium. The US Public Health Service (1990) reports that the natural background level in soil is typically 6 ppm of thorium. http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/sideviews/article/lynas-issue-not-learning-from-bitter-experience-richard-pendragon

. The UMTRA project was originally started in 2001 when the a corporation went bankrupt. Through legislative actions, the project was given to the Department of Energy to take responsibility of the clean up.

AELB says will close Lynas plant if waste agreement broken http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/aelb-says-will-close-lynas-plant-if-waste-agreement-broken The Malaysian Insider, March 15, 2012  KUALA LUMPUR,   The Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) assured Malaysians today it will shutter Lynas Corporation’s rare earth plant in Kuantan if the Australian mining firm violates conditions on the disposal of radioactive material.

According to Star Online, the regulator reminded at its weekly media briefing today that that firm had already struck an agreement with local authorities here for it to return any radioactive waste to Australia if it fails to set up a permanent disposal facility here.

This, said AELB director-general Raja Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan, is
despite Lynas’s pledge that all residues from the plant in Gebeng,
Kuantan, would be recycled into products that can be sold.

“The board has approved a temporary operating licence (TOL) to Lynas
but we have not issued it.

“Whether Lynas can proceed with its operations in June (as claimed by
Lynas) remains to be seen,” the English daily quoted him as saying
during the briefing.

Putrajaya recently said the Sydney-based Lynas Corp had sent a letter
of undertaking to the government, promising to send its rare earth
processing residue abroad if it cannot find a suitable waste disposal
site in Malaysia.

But in response, anti-Lynas group Himpunan Hijau scoffed at the
undertaking and demanded International Trade Minister Datuk Mustapa
Mohamad reveal which foreign destination would accept such large
amounts of toxic waste.

“Where exactly is ‘abroad’? Identify and prove to us which country outside of Malaysia is willing to accept this massive [volume of] toxic waste. Tell us which third world country Lynas will invade and
pollute next. We want to know the full details,” the group’s chairman,
Wong Tack, had asked.

The anti-Lynas lobbyist also demanded to know how much radioactive
waste the miner plans to accumulate as well as the duration these
would be stored at a temporary dumpsite before being shipped out.

He claimed in his statement that the proposed local dump is located in
an unsuitable swamp area in the Gebeng industrial zone, on the
outskirts of coastal Kuantan.

He said Western Australian Minister for Mines and Petroleum Norman Moore was entitled to his view that Australia would not accept responsibility for any waste produced by Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd. “Our Cabinet has not made a decision on the matter. Wait for it to be announced,” he said after the launch of the National Energy Security Conference 2012 yesterday.

Moore told the Australian parliament that the Western Australian government does not support the import and storage of other countries’ radioactive waste.

PKR MP Fuziah Salleh had proposed that the rare earth waste material for Lynas be returned to Australia. ….
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/2/29/nation/10825847&sec=nation

He said Western Australian Minister for Mines and Petroleum Norman Moore was entitled to his view that Australia would not accept responsibility for any waste produced by Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd. “Our Cabinet has not made a decision on the matter. Wait for it to be announced,” he said after the launch of the National Energy Security Conference 2012 yesterday.

Moore told the Australian parliament that the Western Australian government does not support the import and storage of other countries’ radioactive waste.

PKR MP Fuziah Salleh had proposed that the rare earth waste material for Lynas be returned to Australia. ….http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/2/29/nation/10825847&sec=nation

…. “As long as the research and findings by the government are not published, there is always going to be concern,” he told the New Straits Times when contacted yesterday. Citing the now-closed Asian Rare Earth (ARE) project in Bukit Merah, Perak, as an example, he urged the government to reconsider its decision to continue with the project.

“Shifting the disposal site is not going to address bigger problems that will occur later in the future, the site might be shifted far from where people live but there is still the eco-system and animals could also be affected. ”Radiation is not something that can be immediately seen or felt, hence the phobia by the public.”

On Friday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak said the government had decided to ask Lynas Corporation to dispose of residue from its rare earth processing plant to a dedicated site far from residential areas.