Lynas guarantee slammed following revelation

Harakahdaily

Nov 30: A revelation by Australia’s National Toxics Network that tailing ponds built by Lynas in Mount Weld would leak some 14,000 litres or five million litres of radioactive tailings waste annually has irked the Stop Lynas Coalition, saying it was proof that Lynas had breached its promise. “Lynas had given repeated guarantees that its rare earth material was low in radioactive level to the point that it can be transported as non-radioactive material from Mount Weld to Freemantle Port located 1,000km in West Australia,” said SLC head Andansura in a statement Harakahdaily.As such, Andansura said the company's claim that its processing material was non-hazardous to environment was “fantasy.” “Lynas management in Malaysia promised that the radioactive wastes left over here can be recycled and used as gypsum woods and fertilizer through experiments and research and development. But the reality is, no such R&D has been proven at any part of the world,” he chided. SLC research head Lee Chean Chung said NTN’s revelation had laid bare Lynas’s hypocrisy in the matter. “The fact is, Lynas took advantage of the loophole in Australian laws, the Radiation Safety 2002, which states that if the material was for chemical processes or to produce radioactive material (uranium and thorium), then the radioactivity level allowed can reach 10 Bq/g,” he said. Lee said the real radioactivity level of rare-earth material exceeded 8Bq/g, higher than international level observed by Australia and Malaysia, which is 1.0 Bq/g. Following the revelation, Andansura said the government should immediately suspend the construction of the Lynas plant pending an investigation in Australia and Malaysia. “We do not want the government to be used as a pawn by interested parties to give positive feedback to Lynas’s investors after the radioactive leakage incident in Mount Weld,” he stressed. Lynas had since denied the NTN’s allegation.