MCLM wants rare earth plant EIA made public
By Melissa Chi, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 — The Najib administration should make public the environmental impact assessment (EIA) report for a RM700 million rare earth refinery in Kuantan and safeguards to prevent a radioactive disaster, a civil group demanded today.
Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) president Haris Ibrahim said even with assurances from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, there needs to be a proper study to prove that the refining plant will not leave harmful side effects.
“We want to know why Malaysia is hosting dirty industries belonging to other countries and why the government is allowing the country to be used by foreign companies in such a manner.
“We want to know what safeguard measures are in place to ensure there will be no radioactive disaster,” he said in a statement today.
The Malaysian Insider reported assurances about the refinery safety from the Australian mining company Lynas, which is building the plant near Kuantan, the capital of Najib’s home state Pahang. News of the refinery was first reported by the New York Times yesterday.
“Datuk Seri Najib Razak has given the assurance that there are safeguards in place to ensure that there will not be radioactive leakages from the new Australian-owned rare earth refining plant in Kuantan and that the waste will be disposed of properly.
“However, he fails to realise that radioactive waste poses an enormously difficult problem which to date no country has solved. Even France, the country where at least 80 per cent of its energy is nuclear energy, has problems with waste. This despite the fact that their engineering is a point of national pride,” Haris pointed out.
He charged that Malaysia has not yet proven itself in the area of radioactive waste management with its only experience being the Asia Rare Earth plant in Bukit Merah in the 1980s.
“During then too the government failed to avert a radioactive disaster involving the rare earth plant in Bukit Merah, Ipoh, despite warnings of danger from the Bukit Merah New Village residents, lawyers and activists.
“There were numerous cases of leukaemia, miscarriages, babies born with deformities and early deaths, and the effects are still felt to this day,” Haris said.
The New York Times report that the Lynas refinery in Kuantan could break China’s chokehold on rare earth metals that are crucial to high technology products such as Apple’s iPhone, the Toyota Prius and Boeing’s smart bombs, said the newspaper.
