Antinuclear

Australian company Lynas meets opposition to its rare earths plan

The Star Online, said that if Lynas claimed the residue from the plant would be safe, it should be shipped back to Australia.  “Malaysia cannot afford to keep a health time bomb here and we do not know when it will explode,” 

Protests threaten Lynas’s Malaysian rare-earths plant, The Australian, Sarah-Jane Tasker , April 26, 2011 RARE-EARTHS miner Lynas’s plans for a processing plant in Malaysia have been thrown into doubt as local authorities review the proposal in light of concerns about radiation pollution.

The Malaysian government has announced it will create a panel of independent international experts to review the $US220 million ($205m) plant Lynas is constructing in the Gebeng industrial zone in Pahang.

The Minister of International Trade and Industry, Mustapa Mohamed, said until both the federal and Pahang state governments had decided on the panel’s findings, no pre-operating licence would be issued to Lynas and there would be no imports of Australian raw materials.

Mr Mohamed told a news conference on Friday that the safety of the Malaysian people came first. “We will never compromise the public interest in the handling of the Lynas issue, and the health and safety of our people and the environment will continue to receive the highest priority,” he said…… Strong local opposition to the plant forced the government to take action, with angry protesters calling for construction of the refinery to cease.

A blog on a local website, The Star Online, said that if Lynas claimed the residue from the plant would be safe, it should be shipped back to Australia.

“Malaysia cannot afford to keep a health time bomb here and we do not know when it will explode,” the blog stated.

Concerned local residents fear a repeat of health problems associated with a Mitsubishi refinery, which closed in 1992 after years of demonstrations by citizens protesting about its polluting effects. A clean-up process is still under way at that site.

The recent damage to the nuclear power plants in Japan following the earthquake and tsunami have also heightened concerns about radiation risks around the plant, ….http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/protests-threaten-lynass-malaysian-rare-earths-plant/story-e6frg8zx-1226044671530

April 26, 2011 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, politics international, rare earths, uranium