Antinuclear

PETALING JAYA: The people of Kuantan are against it.The community in Fremantle, the port where the radioactive waste would be kept before being shipped to Malaysia will be against it as well.And now an Australian MP has asked the Australian government to stop shipping its radioactive waste in the form of rare earth to Malaysia

Lynn MacLaren said the international community will be keeping tabs on how the Lynas mine in Western Australia would be operated and how its radioactive by-product would be exported.

“I also call upon the Transport Minister (Troy Buswell) to halt planned shipments of rare earth with radioactive Thorium 232 to Malaysia,” said MacLaren in a statement.

The Lynas project to process rare earth material had drawn criticism from residents and environmentalists in Malaysia as they feared a repeat of the 1982 Bukit Merah rare earth plant.

The Bukit Merah plant had been linked to eight leukemia cases with seven deaths so far.

The plant operator, Mitsubishi Chemicals is still running a massive RM300 million clean up in the area.

McLaren then reminded the Australian government that the Lynas project in Malaysia was currently being reviewed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) due to public concerns about radiation health and safety.

She added that even the Malaysian government had decided to form an independent panel of its own to review the project due to widespread protest.

“I have been in touch with community groups in Malaysia and its media and they have no desire there to see our toxic by-products dumped near their local villages.

“And the MP for Kuantan (Fuziah Salleh) has called for any Thorium refined from the mine to be returned to Australia,” she added.