Find right dump site or ship out, Lynas told

There's no place for Lynas waste if the plant can't find a proper place, minister Maximus Ongkili said.

KUALA LUMPUR: If the Lynas rare earth plant can’t find a place to dump its waste, then it should take it out of the country.

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Maximus Ongkili said this as a warning to the Australian company.

“(If) you cannot process the waste here according to our standard, if you cannot find a permanent place, then you have to seek (a place) out of this country. Otherwise, I’m not going to give you the licence (to operate the plant).”

“…If you cannot find a place, then you (have to send it) to Australia, or where you can go find it (yourselves). This is a condition we (gave them), and they have agreed to that,” he told reporters in the Parliament lobby.

Ongkili also said that the Australian government had not informed Malaysia if it would reject waste gleaned from the Pahang-based plant.

Currently, the Western Australian (WA) state government repeatedly said that it would not allow radioactive waste coming from the plant, even if it did originally come (in ore form) from Mount Weld, WA.

Nevertheless, Ongkili said that it was up to Lynas, and not Malaysia, to make sure the waste would or would not go back to Australia.

“I have never received any formal communication from them (Australia)… We are not here… for the purpose of just helping Lynas. We have set the conditions, they must qualify,” he said.

Engineering audit

Meanwhile, Ongkili said that a government-led committee would monitor and run an “engineering audit” on the plant until it was completed.

“They (Lynas) have consultants who are there, Australians, and are taking the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) standard. But I was also concerned that there were no Malaysians there, so we set up our own team to do an engineering audit.

“I told Lynas that you must allow them (the committee to do this); if not, I’m not going to consider their application. So they agreed,” he added.

Termed as the “LAMP (Lynas Advanced Materials Plant) Project Expert Evaluation Panel Committee”, the group was nine-strong, the minister said.

Ongkili added that the panel’s members were from the AELB (Atomic Energy Licensing Board), Mineral and Geoscience Department, Malaysia Nuclear Agency, Department of Occupational Safety and Health, Department of Environment, Public Works Department (JKR), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia and the Institute of Civil Engineers.

He added that there was no time limit to the committee’s lifespan, and that it would carry out spot checks on the plant.