Lynas’ Thorium Radioactive waste – A RM 2 – 4 trillion money spinner?
Choo Sing Chye
I guess a few weeks ago, Malaysia woke up to the best news of the century – a waste product that could generate RM 2 – 4 trillion for our country.
Who cares about the radioactivity of the by-product? It can never penetrate our thick skin, but for our thick skull, well…nobody can guarantee that it would not.
Take for example, the detractors of Ambiga, if you shine a torchlight (not radioactive) through one of their ears, it would definitely come out from the another. Anyway let’s leave these pendulum butts aside.
Obviously this waste product is touted to bring in mega bucks, so they say, and the matter (atom size) is so tiny that we cannot see with our naked eye, so, why argue?
Okay, let’s get back to the ‘trillion’ ringgit news. According to nuclear physicist Abdul Rahman Omar who told the parliamentary select committee (PSC) that the Thorium waste produced by Lynas’s is a future money spinner i.e., ‘one tonne of thorium generates the same amount of energy as 10 million tonnes of coal.’ (1)
Here’s what he said, ‘It can generate 1 gigawatt of electricity in a year which is worth RM1 billion to RM2 billion, multiply this by the 2,000 tonnes a year that the factory will produce, then it is worth between RM2 trillion to RM4 trillion in electricity.’ (2)
Now wait a minute, didn’t we hear this one before?
Okay, before we salivate at the trillion of ringgit profit from the thorium waste, let us set the clock back to October 1986, when Dr. Fowler, a nuclear energy consultant from the United States, engaged by the Asian Rare Earth said the very same thing as Abdul Rahman Omar’s.
Dr. Fowler said, ‘I have deliberately referred to the Thorium cake (from ARE) as a residual by-product, rather than a waste product, since it may have a future value as a fuel material for nuclear electric power plants.’ (3)
But fortunately, foreign experts brought in by the NGOs on behalf of the residents of Papan, Bukit Merah and Menglembu then, strongly negated Dr. Fowler’s invalid proposal 26 years ago?
Today it is ironical for Nuclear physicist Abdul Rahman to bring out the same proposal again without revealing the disadvantages of using Thorium Hydroxide as a nuclear fuel.
Because of this fallacy, I wish to republish what the foreign experts said on this issue 26 years ago.
One, Thorium Hydroxide cannot be use directly as a nuclear fuel. It has to be converted in a special nuclear reactor to uranium 233, before use. This conversion will take between 20 – 60 years. (4)
Two, the potential future use of the waste is unrealistic. For example, if Malaysia is to use the Thorium waste to fuel its reactors, she has to build special Thorium cycle reactors because normal reactors cannot run on this fuel. Thus, the Malaysian Government has to cough out millions of Ringgit to build new Thorium Cycle reactors. (5)
Three, Britain, Canada and Norway have closed down their experimental Thorium Cycle reactors. The remaining Thorium Cycle reactors in the United States are facing numerous technical problems and it would not be long for these reactors to be shut down. (6)
Thus, the Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) in Tennessee (1968 to 1972) was abandoned because of numerous technical problems and not just the overproduction of uranium as suggested by physicist Abdul Rahman (7)
