Antinuclear

Lynas still has to move a radioactive mountain, say Malay officials, SMH, By Colin Kruger, April 18, 2019 Malaysian Environment Minister Yeo Bee Yin accused Lynas Corp of putting its bottom line before the environmental concerns of local Malays in a letter to the company’s employees last year, and it appears that her hard line stance against the controversial rare earths group is prevailing.Malaysian Government officials told the Sydney Morning Herald and The Ageon Wednesday that Lynas Corp still needs to remove more than 450,000 tonnes of radioactive waste from the country for its licence to be renewed in September.

Minister Yeo laid down the law in a letter to Lynas employees in December just days after her ministry effectively ordered the company to remove 450,000 tonnes of low level radioactive waste.

As of now, there is no viable near-term solution to manage the accumulated residue, which is stored at the open landfill temporary site,” Minister Yeo said in the letter.

“The risks to the surrounding communities and environment increases with the increasing amount of accumulated residue as it is exposed to the threat of natural disasters such as major flooding.”

The officials, who are not authorised to speak on behalf of the government on this subject, confirmed that the original conditions that the Environment ministry introduced in December remain in place.

In the Lynas employee letter, which was posted to her official Facebook page, Minister Yeo emphasised that the government was holding Lynas to its promise of removing the waste from Malaysia and seized on Australian analyst reports indicating that the cost of removing the residue could be as low as $60 million……..

While still seeking further clarification from the government on his comments, it was suggested that the radioactive waste no longer needs to be exported.

” … they can continue if they promise that the raw material from Australia would be brought here only after, what they call, cracking and cleaning it up,” Dr Mahathir told a local press after his cabinet had met to discuss Lynas following public disagreement among his ministers…… https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/lynas-still-has-to-move-a-radioactive-mountain-say-malay-officials-20190417-p51f1k.html