Yeo: Lynas disposal facility a ‘national monument of shame’

 

In recounting her brief stint as energy, science, technology, environment and climate change minister in her soon-to-be-released book, Yeo Bee Yin laments that Lynas’ permanent disposal facility (PDF) will stand as a “national monument of shame”.

“First, in the name of economic development, we would be giving 12 years of tax exemption to a foreign company that produces a huge amount of waste to be dumped permanently in Malaysia.

“Secondly, we would be letting this company off the hook for a commitment made in black and white. This would send a message that a developing country’s government can be bullied by a company from the developed world and had no choice but to put up with it in the name of economic development.

“This is the very reason why, from the very beginning, I pushed - unsuccessfully - for the waste to be shipped out of the country,” she wrote in her upcoming book ‘Unfinished Business’.

Yeo pointed to the scale of the proposed PDF, which would occupy 58.25 hectares of the Bukit Ketam permanent forest reserve, about 35km from Kuantan.

The Bukit Ketam site was eventually rejected by the Department of Environment and a new site next to the Lynas plant in Gebeng Industrial Estate was subsequently approved.

She said the only saving grace was that the Pakatan Harapan administration at the time imposed a condition that Lynas has to build its cracking and leaching facility elsewhere.

This meant only intermediate products will now be shipped to Malaysia for processing and this would not add to the radioactive waste that Lynas already dumps in Malaysia, especially considering the vast scale of Lynas’ operations.

“Had we not imposed the condition for Lynas to construct a cracking and leaching facility elsewhere, the size of the PDF in Malaysia would keep growing to keep up with the ever-increasing WLP [water leach purification residue which contains radioactive wastes] accumulated in Malaysia!” she wrote.

Lynas announced in 2020 that the cracking and leaching facility would be built in Western Australia.

PDF recommendation infeasible

In October 2018, the Harapan government set up a committee to make recommendations on the way forward on the Lynas issue.

Among others, it proposed that a PDF should be erected to store radioactive waste, or the waste be removed from Malaysia.

However, Yeo contended that the PDF proposal is infeasible because of the sheer size of land that would be needed.

She said while the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has well-established standards for building a PDF for radioactive waste, these are intended for small quantities of highly radioactive substances.

“The challenge with the PDF for Lynas’ radioactive waste was not the radioactivity at 6.2 Bq/s [rate of radioactive decay per second], which was many thousand times lower than nuclear power plant waste, but the amount of the waste which was increasing at a rate of about 100,000 metric tonnes per annum depending on Lynas’ production rate,” she said.

In China, which is the only other rare earth processor in the world at the time, rare earth refineries similar to Lynas would return their waste back into the mine, since the local geology is often suited for a PDF, and it is usually located far from cities.

“Indeed, it is possible to build a PDF that complies with international standards. However, this PDF will be massive in size and the land it occupies, as well as the buffer zone surrounding it, will become permanently unusable.

“Unlike China and Australia, which have a vast land mass and non-arable land and can thus afford to carve out land that will be permanently ‘lost’, Malaysia’s land mass is much smaller and fertile, and can otherwise be used for more productive activities such as agriculture.

“Additionally, it would be difficult to find a suitable site in Malaysia with suitable geology to build the PDF which is required to be far from cities and water sources,” she said.

Lynas’ ‘unethical’ argument

Because of this, her ministry made the WLP waste removal a pre-condition for the renewal of Lynas’ temporary operating licence.

Lynas had also previously promised to remove the waste it produced “if necessary”, and as proof, Yeo published two letters of undertaking from Lynas in 2012 promising this.

However, Lynas purportedly objected to removing the WLP waste by claiming that its letters of undertaking were only for the first temporary operating licence.

It also purportedly claimed that the removal would be so costly that it would render its business unfeasible and force its closure, causing Malaysia to lose investments and jobs; and that the government should implement the review committee’s first recommendation of building a PDF in Malaysia instead of the second recommendation of shipping the waste overseas.

Activists urge Pakatan Harapan to abide to its promise to remove Lynas

“In my view, it was unethical and immoral of them to change their mind and say that they couldn’t do it and even argued that the letters of undertaking were only for the first temporary operating licence approval,” she said.

Yeo said the biggest hurdle to removing the WLP waste was opposition from Australia. She accused Lynas of failing to make every effort to fulfil the promises laid out in its letter of undertaking.

“They did not petition their own government with equal diligence, compared to their zealous approach and effort in lobbying the Malaysian federal and state governments.”

Harapan fears losing investor confidence

As Lynas’ temporary operating licence nears its due date for renewal, Yeo said the then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and most of the cabinet were concerned that not renewing Lynas’ licence could affect investor confidence.

Even though the decision to approve Lynas’ temporary operating licence was made by the previous BN administration, the Harapan government must take responsibility for its predecessors to provide as much certainty as possible to investors.

Hence, the cabinet asked her to review the condition to remove the WLP waste and find a middle ground.

Lynas was thus no longer required to remove the WLP waste but instead must remove the cracking and leaching process that produces the radioactive waste from Malaysia within four years.

“As expected, the middle ground position was not good enough for either side.

“I was criticised heavily by anti-Lynas activists who were adamant about closing down Lynas, and even my own colleagues openly shouted at me in Parliament.

“Meanwhile, Lynas launched a hostile offensive to portray itself as a victim of an ‘anti-business’ minister, me – when in fact during our private interactions, their top management undermined me with their condescension and derision,” she said.

Former minister Yeo Bee Yin: Your vote matters, let no one tell you otherwise

Your votes still matter

Despite the unhappy compromise, Yeo pointed out that the conditions that the Harapan government imposed on Lynas were much more stringent than those imposed by BN.

Among others, Lynas has to build a permanent disposal facility for its waste instead of piling it up on-site, and it is no longer treating Malaysia as a “lab rat” through experiments in recycling the WLP waste into a soil conditioner.

“Most importantly, Lynas was required to build a cracking and leaching plant elsewhere within four years and ensure that no more radioactive waste would be produced in Malaysia […]

“Yes, the outcome may be less ideal than what we expected, but it is much better than the status quo [before the 14th general election].

“So your vote matters, let no one tell you otherwise,” she said.

More recently, it was reported that Lynas approached Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Dr Adham Baba to ask for the condition to move its cracking and leaching facility to be dropped. Otherwise, the facility must be moved by July 2023.

Malaysiakini had contacted Adham and Lynas for comments. However, Adham’s secretary said the question should be referred to AELB, which in turn told the news portal that it has not received any application from Lynas to renew its licence.

Lynas has yet to reply. - Mkini