Datuk Madinah Mohamad
KUALA LUMPUR: The Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) is to display for public feedback from this January 3 to 17 the application for a temporary operating licence from rare earth processing company Lynas (M) Sdn Bhd (Lynas).
Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti) secretary-general Datuk Madinah Mohamad said the document would be put on display at the AELB headquarters in Dengkil, Selangor; the Pahang State Secretariat from Mondays to Fridays; and at the AELB temporary office at the Lynas’ project site in Gebeng, Kuantan; as well as at the AELB east coast branch office in Kemaman, Terengganu from Sundays to Thursdays.
“People who want to comment on the document have to submit a form provided at the locations before noon on January 20,” she said in a statement.
In December, The Academy of Sciences Malaysia (ASM) and the National Professors’ Council (NPC), in a joint report on the project, stressed that Lynas’ rare earth plant in Gebeng would be safe and harmless if the company followed the recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the project.
The report added that the plant must adhere to stringent procedures for waste management to ensure worker safety, public safety and environmental well-being.
The 63-page report, issued on December 20, said the processing of rare earth would produce some by-products that could carry some low-level radioactive risks, but such risks should be manageable by way of technologies available to effectively render the wastes harmless and safe.
ASM, an independent science and technology ‘think-tank’; and NPC, a body of more than 1,500 professors from the public and private universities, initiated a comprehensive study on rare earth and its potential contribution to the Malaysian economy.
In the report entitled ‘Rare Earth Industries: Moving Malaysia’s Green Economy Forward’, they also said that Lynas would have to ensure that there is a health scanning of plant employees as well as people working within the immediate vicinity of the plant. — Bernama