Fuziah: AELB, Mosti caved in to ‘unknown pressure’

Granting Lynas Corp a license to operate is simply allowing them to treat people like lab rats, says Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh.

PETALING JAYA: Kuantan MP, Fuziah Salleh, believes that an unseen but powerful hand was behind the granting of a temporary operating licence (TOL) to Lynas Corp.

The Australian mining giant received its long awaited TOL today following the Atomic Energy Licencing Board’s (AELB) meeting on Monday.

The TOL is however subjected to five conditions and a breach of any one of them would result in the suspension or revocation of the licence.

Three of those five conditions insist that Lynas disclose the details of its Permanent Disposal Facility (PDF) and take full responsibility of waste management which includes sending it back to the original source if necessary.

Not a single detail of the PDF was included in Lynas’ Radioactive Waste Management Plan (RWMP) which was available for public viewing for three weeks last month.

Most of the public feedback questioned the vagueness of this facility and Lynas’ plan to recycle and commercialise the residue.

Fuziah, who is Lynas’ strongest detractor, pointed out that AELB’s insistence on more details of the PDF was a confirmation that Lynas’ RWMP is flawed and incomplete.

“These are loopholes not conditions,” she told FMT in an immediate reaction.

“The fact that AELB said it would revoke the TOL if Lynas doesn’t meet these conditions shows that they know the licence shouldn’t have been issued in the first place.

“Their conditions are incongruent with their decision. Hence why I believe that both AELB and Mosti are under tremendous pressure or instruction by an unknown source to approve this licence.

“No responsible government would allow its people to be treated like lab rats,” she said.

Groups to file suit

Fuziah said that anti-Lynas groups would now proceed with a judicial review of AELB’s decision and would likely file a suit within a week.

“Our lawyers sent a letter to AELB last week on behalf of the Kuantan people who oppose the plant.

“The letter pointed out that no detailed Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has been conducted since last June.”

“The EIA is a living document and should be frequently updated to include health and social impact assessments.

“We thought that AELB would take our letter seriously but they issued the licence instead,” Fuziah said.

Lynas last week announced that it has raised US$225 million (RM700 million) in bonds to complete Phase One of the plant and will be delaying operations to the second quarter of the year.