LYNAS Malaysia is not a nuclear plant and does not produce nuclear waste, said Lynas Corporation Ltd CEO and managing director Amanda Lacaze.

The high-quality rare earth material processed at the company’s plant has not changed the background radiation level, she told Bernama in an interview.

“It is important that people understand that radiation is part of our daily activities. We get exposed to radiation in many different ways, for example, smoking, getting on a plane, or sometimes, just being part of the surrounding environment.

“We are a lawful company, we comply with all of our licence conditions, everything that we do is about (causing) zero harm to our people, zero harm to the environment, zero harm to the community.”

For the past six years, Lynas Malaysia has been operating a processing plant in Gebeng, Kuantan, which refines rare earth ores from the Lynas mine in Western Australia.

There have been claims that the activities at the plant pose a health hazard as the plant allegedly produces toxic and radioactive waste.

Last week, Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Fuziah Salleh promised an “open and transparent” review of the plant.

Lynas Malaysia, in turn, asked that the review be conducted in a fair, scientific and transparent manner.

On Saturday, workers at the plant staged a protest, fearing they would lose their jobs if the plant was ordered closed.

Lacaze said the plant does not produce toxic or radioactive waste.

Instead, she said, by-products of the rare earth refining activities are two forms of gypsum – the iron-rich phosphogypsum (WLP), which contains very low levels of naturally occurring radiation, and the magnesium-rich gypsum known as NUF, which is non-radioactive.

The residue is safely managed under regulations enforced by the government through the Department of Environment and Atomic Energy Licensing Board.

The WLP residue at Lynas Malaysia is stored on site in purpose-built, above-ground storage facilities designed and managed in accordance with the requirements of international best practices.

Lynas Malaysia radiation safety general manager Professor Ismail Bahari said the International Atomic Energy Agency has clarified that the radiological risk from the plant’s operations is intrinsically low.

He said gypsum is used in a wide variety of applications, such as in the construction industry (cement and plasterboard) and agriculture (show-release fertiliser and soil conditioning).

On the possibility of a leakage, he said the company has carried out radiology-impact research, and has even made 100-year predictions on the possibility of a leakage.

“One of the things we did in the radiation-impact assessment was, what if there is a tsunami? If you say a tsunami, you have to ask, where are we located? By the sea, the radioactivity in the material itself is almost like the background level.

“I have measured it, and if you’ve heard of Pantai Pasir Hitam in Langkawi, we are on a par with it. In fact, we are much lower when comparing with the waste from tin-mining activities.

“The residue can actually be returned to the environment based on the principle of waste management for radioactivity, which is called ‘dilute and disperse’,” he said, adding that the production and storage of WLP has no negative effect on the surrounding communities, as there has not been any increase in the background radiation level since the plant started operations. – Bernama, October 10, 2018.