The permanent disposal facility (PDF) for Lynas’ radioactive waste should not be built in Gebeng, Kuantan, due to the possible risk of groundwater contamination, Kuantan MP Fuziah Salleh said.
Speaking to Malaysiakini, she pointed out that the groundwater level at the new proposed site is near to the surface and any leakage would contaminate the groundwater and indirectly affect the environment and food chain.
Fuziah explained that Thorium - one of the radionuclides in the water leach purification (WLP) residue - has a very long half-life of around 14 billion years and is also a carcinogen.
As it is a permanent disposal site, she thus suggested that it should not be near to any water system.
“It is because water can carry the radionuclides, and it will get into the environment.
“For example, it will enter the underground water and get into the plants, and then the animals eat the plants and it can actually get into our food chain.
“It is very important to locate it away from the water source. That is also one of the reasons why the Bukit Ketam plan was rejected as the proposed site is also a water catchment area.”
Fuziah said this in response to the new proposal of Lynas to build a PDF for its radioactive WLP residue within the Gebeng Industrial Estate.
She also pointed out that groundwater contamination has been recorded at the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP), according to a report published by the Lynas executive review committee in 2018.
The groundwater contamination was shown by the data from Lynas' groundwater monitoring stations, she added.
Lynas currently stores the existing WLP residue in the interim residue storage facility (RSF) so it had been required to monitor and submit the data of groundwater quality, the lawmaker aid.
“We cannot afford any risk of this kind. We cannot save Lynas and sacrifice the people,” she said, adding that any residue leakage would bring serious impacts.
“The Department of Environment (DOE) is also paid by taxpayers. So DOE must do their work diligently, think of the people, think of the public and our future generations.”
She added that PDF should not be built at a place near any population and habitat.
Fuziah was appointed as the president of Lynas executive review committee when Pakatan Harapan was in power.
She later voluntarily stepped down and was replaced by scientist and sustainability expert Mazlin Mokhtar, following Lynas’ criticism that she would not be impartial.
The review committee report states that there is a spike in heavy metal content in groundwater under the Lynas plant, based on data in 2015 and 2016, compared to data in 2007.
However, Lynas is confident that it is not caused by rare earth processing.
In short, although the data shows the contamination of groundwater under the Lynas facility, and there was no heavy metal contamination at the spot before Lynas’ operation, it was not scientifically proven that Lynas is the “source” of the contamination.
Denying that the contamination was caused by its rare earth processing, Lynas at that time pointed the finger at the bauxite mining activities in Kuantan.
The Lynas plant began operations in 2013, while large-scale bauxite mining began in late 2014 and reached its peak in 2015 before mining licences were revoked due to severe pollution.
However, large-scale bauxite mining is now returning, with the blessings of the Pahang government.
Meanwhile, Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths Ltd has confirmed with Reuters that it had identified a second potential site in Malaysia to build a PDF.
It said that the alternative location was identified “amid ongoing delays for clearance of an earlier site identified by the Pahang state government”. However, the company did not mention the exact location of the alternative site.
Lynas Malaysia did not respond to Malaysiakini's queries at the time of the writing of this report yesterday. - Mkini
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