KUANTAN, Malaysia - Malaysians protesting against an
Australian-owned rare-earth refinery that will generate radioactive waste are
determined to agitate until the project is abandoned.
"It is time to shut down the Lynas plant," said Wong Tack,
chairman of the Himpunan Hijau (Green Gathering Malay) or HHC that is leading a
mass movement against the controversial refinery.
On February 26, the HHC organized its biggest-ever mass protest in the
coastal town of Kuantan, capital of Pahang state, attracting 15,000 ordinary
Malaysians as well as prominent public figures, including Anwar Ibrahim, leader
of the opposition Pakatan Rayat coalition.
Wong Tack said that if the government "continues to dither",
the HHC would organize an even bigger protest at Gebeng, site of the Lynas
Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP). The HHC proved its strength in October 2011
when it organized a 2,000-strong rally at Taman Gelora beach.
According to Wong Tack, Malaysia is seeing a "green revolt"
as people truly fear that the plant will produce radioactive thorium waste that
would seriously harm the environment and endanger people's health.
Anwar said his opposition alliance planned to seek an emergency motion
in parliament to urge the cancellation of the project. "We won't sacrifice
our culture and the safety of the children."
Rare-earth minerals, used in the electronics industry, find their way
into everything from laptops and mobile phones to missiles. Their prices shot
up after China, the world's biggest producer, restricted exports last year.
But processing the rare-earth ores mined in Australia will result in
the concentration of radioactive elements such as thorium and uranium, which if
not properly disposed of can prove hazardous to the environment and to health.
Dr Michael Jeyakumar, a legislator belonging to the small opposition
Parti Sosialis Malaysia, said the country was already suffering from the
dangers of indiscriminate dumping of industrial waste as a result of
uncontrolled and rampant industrialism.
"The people have given notice they will not be a dumping ground
for radioactive waste for this Australian company," he said. "This
Lynas project is going to lay waste our land and our health and the health of
future generations for mere profit.
"The government has to listen to the protesters ... there is no
way the government can justify this act of madness," he said.
The LAMP plant is due for completion in June and start shipping in ore
from the Port Weld mine in Western Australia. LAMP hopes to break China's
near-monopoly on the world's supply of rare-earth metals.
Once production starts, LAMP stands to generate profits in excess of
US$3 billion a year because of the demand for these metals. LAMP has already
signed agreements to supply Japanese firms.
Lynas, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange, saw its
stock prices tumble when protesters filed for court action in the Kuantan High
Court against the government for giving LAMP a temporary operating license.
Prime Minister Najib Razak, reacting to the Gebeng protests, said the
LAMP plant was harmless and the project was subject to review by a government
panel. Najib also said, however, that the government was looking for an
"isolated region" in the country to store the radioactive waste,
thereby admitting that there was a problem.
Thorium, which is radioactive, is already being used to power
experimental nuclear reactors in India, where it occurs naturally and in
abundance.
Friends of the Earth president S M Mohamed Idris said Lynas chose
Malaysia to site its plant because of lax laws on the control of radioactive
materials and the distribution of responsibility among four different
ministries and an atomic-energy regulatory agency.
"Our Atomic Energy Licensing Board [AELB] is in no position to
handle the Gebeng plant, its mechanics and the technology involved, and also
the waste produced," he said.
Last June, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) undertook a
safety study of the Gebeng plant and recommended numerous measures for Lynas to
take, including the submission of plans for a permanent disposal facility for
the radioactive waste.
While Lynas is yet to follow several of the IAEA recommendations, it
has managed to obtain a temporary operating license from the AELB and has been
given a generous 18 months from start of operations - expected in June - to
come up with disposal plans.
The current plan is to contain the waste in special drums that are to
be placed in trenches at the Gebeng plant.
For many Malaysians the plan brings back memories of the Japanese
Mitsubishi-owned Asian Rare Earth plant in the 1980s, which was closed down
after spirited public protest. The Mitsubishi rare-earth plant was ordered shut
after an increase in birth defects and leukemia cases in children of former
workers. The radioactive waste, contained in drums, had to be dug up and
re-interred in a hilltop site.
The member of Parliament for Kuantan, Fuziah Salleh, said the public
was strongly opposed to the LAMP plant out of fear of radioactive poisoning.
"After the Fukushima disaster last year [in Japan], they fear
damage to their health from radioactive waste," she said. "Even if
the radioactive waste is shifted to a remote, unpopulated site it will remain
dangerous for many years. Why bring it here in the first place?"
Baradan Kuppusamy
Asia Times
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