FORMER lawmaker Wong Tack has accused the current government of backtracking on its promise to shut down Lynas. 

Despite the government’s move to stop the company from carrying out any cracking and leaching activity from July onwards, Wong Tack said the decision is five years late and does not resolve the problem. 

“As of May 2019, Lynas has piled up 580,362,000 kg of radioactive waste in their backyard. Today, it stands at 1.08 billion kg and will reach 1.2 billion kg by July.” 

“Pakatan Harapan’s failure to keep to their promise to shut down Lynas when they took power in 2018 has resulted in half a million tonnes more of radioactive waste dumped on our land,” said the ex-Bentong MP. 

The ex-DAP member added that Putrajaya’s decision to extend Lynas’s licence for another three years meant that the government has allowed Lynas to dump an additional 120 million kg of radioactive waste in the country. 

“The minister even expressed that Lynas can appeal for extension after July. What a joke,” he quipped. 

“The biggest problem with Lynas’s operations is there is no safe solution for their massive amount of radioactive and toxic waste.” 

“But our governments, from BN to PH to others and now back to PH have renewed Lynas’s licence again and again although there was clear non-compliance of licensing conditions,” he added. 

Yesterday, the government granted Lynas a three-year extension to operate at Gebeng in Pahang until March 2, 2026.   

Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Chang Lih Kang said that the extension was granted under strict conditions to ensure safe operations.  

The government, however, has rejected Lynas’ application to drop four preconditions under the licence terms in relation to the management of radioactive waste in Malaysia after July this year. – February 17, 2023.