FACTS ABOUT LYNAS

FACTS ABOUT LYNAS

1 Opposition invoked “emotion and anger” to exploit the fear and phobia of nuclear radioactive after Japan’s Fukushima whereby the incident involves a nuclear reactor unlike Lynas that involves a rare earth processing plant of allowable radioactive level.

2 Opposition leader in the State Assembly, Leong Ngah Ngah from DAP, when attending the briefings on the project for elected representatives in 2009, had also agreed to the construction of the project, and was reported by a Chinese daily as saying that the state government had managed to secure a huge investment from abroad.

3 PAS Hulu Langat Member of Parliament, Dr. Che Rusli who is also an expert on radioactivity had also confirmed that the project is not hazardous and within international management standards.

4 New York Times also wrote that the Lynas plant, which is being built in Gebeng, will house radiation sensors and the latest equipment in pollution control, besides featuring 12 acres of temporary storage pools that will be lined with dense plastic and sit atop nearly impermeable clay, to hold the slightly radioactive by-products until they can be carted away.

5 Japan is the world’s biggest importer of rare earths. And China produces 97% of the world supply. At the height of the diplomatic fracas between China and Japan over a disputed island chain, Beijing used this precious metal to force Japan to come to their terms. This product is becoming an effective weapon.

6 China which produces 97% of the world’s rare earth supply but only hold 30% of the world reserve had previously approved Lynas plan to set up the processing plant but the Chinese government had later imposed export limits on all final products as well as export taxes. This is double taxation. The Chinese government now controls and restricts export of all rare earth materials and also applies import and export taxes of up to 25% specifically for rare earths. Lynas was unwilling to invest in China and then have the export of final products controlled by the Chinese government.

7 Beijing pressured the Japanese technology firms who need rare earths to produce everything from smart phones to Toyota Motor Corp.’s prized hybrid automobile, the Prius. One day after the new customs procedures were introduced, Japan – which depends on China for nearly all of its rare earths – caved in to Beijing’s demand in the fight, releasing the captain of a Chinese fishing boat that rammed two Japanese coast guard vessels near the uninhabited islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.

8 Lynas has committed to place funds with the Malaysian government to ensure safe management of any remaining residue once the plant stops operations.

9 Lynas Corp Ltd had received approvals to build a rare earth refinery in Australia and China but had picked Malaysia as the preferred location given its proximity to market, access to high quality chemicals, utilities and engineering skills. Kuantan Port is strategically located for trade. China’s port is far away and expensive in tax and Australia’s port is neither here nor there in any geographical location.

10 Lynas was granted a 12-year tax break due to their pioneer status such as Amoco and WR GRace. Lynas will promote the influx of supporting industries ; i.e. furniture, chemical product, steel and etc. Money will be trickle down to the community especially retailing and F&B.

11 Lynas has struck a deal with another company to turn the waste product into concrete. The low levels of thorium could be converted into safe byproducts such as cement aggregate for road construction. China is already doing this. (Rare earths contain low-levels of radioactive material)

12 If opposition successfully stop the Lynas plant, the world will lose their confidence in Malaysia as a nation that is incapable of making decisions based on international standards and laws. PM will lose his command and credibility as being unable to give security and confidence to the investors when faced with local political pressure.

13 Lynas site approval came from the International Trade and Industry ministry and the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) and not the State Government of Pahang.

14 AELB is an international body which govern the conduct of all nuclear and atomic activities. It has an international radar screen which monitor all the radioactive plant site of which a country is a treaty to it including Malaysia. Malaysia as a signatory party has to followed the required international standard before approving any atomic or nuclear activities.

15 Malaysia is following in the footsteps of Indonesia, Vietnam and Bangladesh which will be operating their first nuclear power plant by 2020. Although Bangladesh was comparatively less industrialised than Malaysia, it evertheless planned to have its nuclear power plant built by 2020.

16 The raw material processed at the Asian Rare Earth Plant in Bukit Merah which used tin mining tailings as its raw material is different from the one uses by Lynas as the former contained high levels of thorium, which was the source of high levels of radiation.

17 Under current regulations, the raw material processed at Bukit Merah could not be processed in Australia, Malaysia or China and by contrast, the Lynas raw material contained naturally low levels of thorium 50 times lower than the tin tailings used by Asian Rare Earth.

18 The employees will be exposed to just 10 per cent of the additional radiation an average person receives in their daily lives, which is less than the exposure to a person getting a medical or dental x-ray once a year (0.39 mSv/year). Referring to Nuklear Malaysia’s report, each person receives an average of 2.4 millisieverts (mSv) of radiation from their natural surroundings annually. The Asian Rare Earth raw material was tin mining tailings which contained high level of thorium, 50 times higher than

19 The raw material that will be used at LAMP. On average, a Lynas worker will receive 2mSv/year (millisievert/ year) of radiation compared with 150 mSv/year received by those who smoke a pack of cigarettes daily or the 9 mSv/year absorbed by airline crew.

20 The radioactive element, thorium, in its raw material from Mount Weld was 50 times lower than those in Bukit Merah. At these levels, exposure to radiation is less than taking a flight on a commercial airline or using a mobile phone. It means you get more radiation exposure by taking a flight or using mobile phone.

Lynas debate is more about politic

When the Fukushima Daichi Nuclear Power plant incident made the news, the world was stunned, for it seemed that even the great engineering nation of Japan was helpless against the destructive nature of nuclear fission.

Suddenly, people realised that cheap and seemingly clean electricity came at a very high risk. Of course, true to the nature of Malaysian politics, just a few days after the incident, a large banner appeared on the MRR2 flyover above the intersection between Taman Melawati and Taman Permata, which read: “Pakatan Rakyat membantah cadangan kerajaan BN membina loji nuklear di Pahang.”

At first I thought that the banner was referring to an initiative to build a nuclear power plant some time in the future as prior to that TNB had released some research paper to look into this alternative means of power generation, you could read about it here and here.

But I learned that the banner was referring to the planned rare earth plant located in Gebeng, Pahang. That’s right, to some people, the Lynas rare earth refinery plant in Pahang was equivalent to Fukushima Daichi, perhaps one could discount the incident saying they were misinformed because at that point the Lynas issue was not in the limelight.

But only a few days ago as I was reading the comments on a FMT article regarding experts contradicting each other on Lynas, I was shocked to see people leaving comments comparing this rare earth plant to Chernobyl and Fukushima.

There was nothing wrong with protesting against an industry that you think might cause harm to the environment. It’s fine, but to literally and willingly be misinformed for the sake of protesting is something I have to object to, as if some automatically revert into this process of dumbing down your logical thoughts and arguments for the sake of living in the narrative that this plant was absolutely evil.

Let me give you an example, when someone pointed out that the Lynas plant in Gebeng was not a nuclear power plant and that its radiation risk or level should not be compared with say Chernobyl or Fukushima, the standard response from an angry passionate protester would be – “Why don’t you live beside the plant lah, bring up your children there!”

You see that’s not a good counter argument nor does that statement strengthen your case in anyway whatsoever. Yes, we all have concerns regarding the environmental effects of industries but still that does not justify your comparison between two very different plants.

Two-race system

Let’s just say if I was to protest the building of an oil and gas refinery plant near Hulu Kelang based upon the notion that the risk of a gas leak was detrimental to the surroundings similar to the effects of the Bhopal Gas leakage.

And it so happens that an oil and gas engineer points out to me that the Bhopal Gas incident was not an oil refinery but rather a pesticide plant, do you think that by me suggesting that he should live around Hulu Kelang and raise his kids there would justify my argument?

Look even if that guy really did move and live at Gebeng it still won’t change the fact that it’s not a nuclear plant. So there! If you must argue on this issue, I plead that at least argue and disagree based on the basis of facts and correct information.

And it really peeves me when people are willing to accept the views of so-called “experts” that fit onto their narrative even though these so-called “experts” have no expertise whatsoever in the related issue. I find it quite baffling how some argue their case, regarding the radioactive impact of this power plant which is supposed to be somewhat similar to nuclear fission, based on the opinion of an epidemiologist and at the same time reject the view of a nuclear scientist who tells you that it’s not.

I know that some would state that there was no point in listening to a government servant nuclear scientist who would only narrate the view of his master as part of the propaganda machine to lie to the rakyat.

Well I got news for you, the nuclear scientist who disagreed with Fuziah Salleh (Kuantan MP), who was also a lecturer for the Nuclear Sciences programme for over 20 years and also served 16 years in the Malaysian atomic licensing committee, was a PAS MP. Yes, Dr Che Rosli Che Mat is an opposition MP from Hulu Langat.

I would like to share with you some very wise words from the current PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, who said: “If you want to know about oil palm, don’t ask the rubber expert.”

I think this issue is not about the environment any longer and those who protests, or at least generally speaking, are passionate about it not because of the environment. If we dig deeper, it is more politically motivated and I think that some of us do this unconsciously.

Some of us are not protesting based on the justification that this plant really is dangerous and detrimental to the environment, rather that we create those justifications so that it fits into the narrative that is convenient to us.

It really saddens me that these days, most issues are argued not based on facts and figures but rather emotional judgments influenced by partisan politicking.

Perhaps, in a more brazen manner, I put forward the suggestion that the Lynas debacle has instead of exposing environmental awareness amongst Malaysians, merely highlights that our country is slowly becoming more of a two-race system instead of a two-party system.

Source : Free Malaysia Today

WHAT IS LYNAS??

Many people asking what is Lynas about? for the first i hear it, i also don't know what it mean.

So I went on Google and found that, “Oh, it’s about rare earth”.

Huh? What?

“Rare earth. You don’t know what’s rare earth?”

No?

“Dumbass”. And we continued drinking.

Later, we got home, watched a few episodes of Homeland (truly awesome series, btw) and now G has collapsed in bed.

For some reason, I’m still not ready to sleep. Probably has something to do with the couple of candy bars and a packet of pork scratchings I inhaled while watching TV. So I ended up googling “Lynas”.

The more I read what I read, the sicker I felt in my guts.

Why?

1. Lynas is basically an Australian company that’s building a $230 million rare earth processing plant in a location called Gebeng that’s about 30km from the town of Kuantan, Pahang. The project has been approved by our government.

2. So what is “rare earth”? From the little that I’ve read….oh, nothing much. Just a beautiful, politically correct name for natural occurring minerals that are RADIOACTIVE.

3. In a nutshell, what this Kuantan-based Lynas plant will do is remove radioactive elements from the rare earth minerals so that what’s left can be used in various industries, namely electronics.

4. When a part of something is removed, there will be waste. In the case of Lynas, radioactive elements will be removed from rare earth minerals resulting in a humongous amount of RADIOACTIVE waste; in the form of gas, liquid and solids.

5. Lynas is not sending the radioactive waste back to Australia, because the government of Australia forbids it. So yeap, it will be disposed in Malaysia.

6. Errrr…how will it be disposed?

7. Some said the radioactive waste will be dumped into the South China Sea. Some said it will be dumped on open ground just like what happened in Bukit Merah. Yeah, I know right, I also didn’t know that we actually had experienced radioactive disaster in our very own Malaysia too!

8. Then I immediately googled “How far does radiation spread?”. Basically, 50km radius is YOU ARE SCREWED ZONE.

9. And crap, it doesn’t stop spreading. The radioactive levels just get lesser as it gets further but THEY DON’T STOP.

10. Which means, although we are 260kms away from Lynas in the comfort of Klang Valley, we are all also at risk.

11. I have relatives in Mentakab and they are a pretty far 140kms away but for them to just be in the same negeri/state concerns me.

12. Our food sources, seafood sources, water sources….they are all at risk.

13. Let me put it this way, if the Japanese can fail to defend their own nuclear power plant, how much faith should I put into our government and in the Ozzies for ensuring a radioactive disaster-free life?

14. 5 years? 15? 25? 30 years is about the maximum and bloody hell, I should still be alive then, possibly with grandchildren.

15. Or not, cause exposure to radiation affects fertility.

I believe we should tell everyone we know what Lynas is. Read up about it. Speak out. Don’t ignore your gut feelings.

# – By the way, the Himpunan Hijau 2.0, a peaceful protest against Lynas plant is happening today at these locations:

And that’s what an average dumbass such as I, thinks about it.