Govt renews Lynas’ operating licence for six months
KUALA LUMPUR: The Pakatan Harapan government yesterday announced it would renew the operating licence of Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd for a further six months, but has effectively given the rare earth mining company the green light to operate for another four years.
One of the conditions specified by the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (LPTA) in its licence extension announcement yesterday stated that Lynas is to come up with a plan to build a “cracking and leaching” facility overseas so that the main processes to remove the radioactive waste — currently being undertaken in Gebeng, Kuantan, Pahang — can be undertaken there. However, it also provided that the overseas cracking and leaching facility be constructed and commence operations “within four years” from the date of licence renewal on Sept 3.
Putrajaya’s decision however does not appear to have the full support of all the senior members of its administration.
In an immediate reaction, Fuziah Salleh, deputy minister in the prime minister’s department, expressed regret at the controversial decision, which she observed makes Lynas the winner.
“The new condition means the public will bear the risk of exposure to effects from radioactive water leach purification (WLP) waste produced in Gebeng for another four years. And Malaysia has to accept the toxic waste from Lynas,” Fuziah, who is in Mecca, said in a statement.
In its statement, the LPTA said that the decision was made following an earlier public statement by Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad that the company would be allowed to stay as the cabinet had agreed to it.
Even so, public concerns about toxic waste risk are only likely to grow given the rate of waste generated and LPTA’s acknowledgment of its storage vulnerabilities.
“PDF (permanent disposal facility) construction needs to be accelerated to minimise the risk of accumulating WLP radioactive residues now exceeding 580,000 tonnes at residue storage facilities, which is vulnerable to natural disaster threats such as floods,” the agency said.
In a reaction to the extension, SMSL (Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas!) legal adviser Hon Kai Ping said: “We are also alarmed by the massive increase in amount of WLP waste generated in less than a year — 130,000 tonnes, twice as much as the 64,000 tonnes per year approved in Lynas’ original blueprints. How can this be legal?”
“Lynas has already generated close to 600,000 tonnes of thorium waste to date. Lynas has essentially been given a free-hand to continue to generate even more toxic radioactive waste in Malaysia to pollute and contaminate our environment,” he added in a statement.
The LPTA said that “After the overseas cracking and leaching facility commences operation, the licence holder will not be allowed to produce radioactive residual of more than one becquerel per gram at its plant in Gebeng, Kuantan.”
In addition, it said that Lynas is required to surrender to the federal government, 0.5% of its annual gross sales — previously a fixed expenditure for research and division (R&D) into the recycling of WLP radioactive residual — as additional collateral until the overseas cracking and leaching facility commences operation. The company is also to terminate all R&D activities related to the recycling of WLP radioactive residual as condisoil in the agriculture sector.
LTPA said the terms are based on recommendations made by the Lynas Advance Materials Plant Executive Review Committee on Operations in its November 2018 report.
But the agency also conceded: “These terms were decided after the federal government of Australia and the state government of Western Australia informed Malaysia that they would not accept the return of Lynas’ radioactive WLP residues.”
Previously, Dr Mahathir had said Lynas could keep rare earth processing waste from its Gebeng plant if it builds and maintains a facility to dispose of its waste.
He had also indicated that the export of Lynas WLP residue would not be a condition for renewal of its operating licence.
Source: TheEdgeMarkets
