International NGOs have slammed the Lynas plant for taking advantage of a legal loophole in Western Australian regulations to ship radioactive material to Kuantan, a move the groups say will endanger the Malaysian populace.

In a statement today, seven environmental and rights groups from Asia to Europe expressed concern over the controversial Lynas plant’s actions to bring in dangerous materials through the “back door”.

NONE“The fact that the rare earth minerals will be mined at Mount Weld, Western Australia but subsequently be processed at Malaysia has prompted our attention.

“It is unusual for a mined ores to be shipped for a journey of 5,000 km solely for processing purposes.”

The groups said it was worrying that Lynas Corporation has relied on “an exemption loophole in the Western Australian transport regulations to allow their concentrate to be shipped from Mt Weld to Fremantle Port without it being classified as radioactive material”.

The exemption clause in the Radiation Safety (Transport of Radioactive Substances) Regulations, WA, 2002 allows the transport of materials without a ‘dangerous goods’ or ‘radioactive material’ classification if it is not destined for extraction radioactive elements or chemical processing.

NONE“Therefore, the ‘non-radioactive’ material will (only) be regulated as ‘radioactive’ from the moment it lands in Malaysia for transportation purposes,” said the NGOs.

“We would like to remind that taking advantages of legal loopholes to be allowed a back-door entry into any developing/under-developed country for the disposal of radioactive waste is a serious case that should not be accepted.

“By doing so, it is not only jeopardising the life and safety of the people, but also showing willful disobedience to or disrespect for the local authority and belittles national/regional’s interest,” they said.

The NGOs also questioned disposing the waste at the processing site in Malaysia, rather than at the original site in Western Australia.

They noted that the plant will generate copious amount of wastes including flue gas desulfutisatin (FGD), neutralisation underflow (NUF) and water leach purification (WLP), among others.

“Almost all radioactive materials (thorium (Th-232) and uranium (U-238)) will be channelled to a sole waste stream called WLP, with the total activity of 62.3 Bq/g.

“64,000 tonnes of WLP waste will be generated every year, equivalent to 63 Olympic-size swimming pool that will contain 106 tonnes of thorium and 5.6 tonnes of uranium, annually,” the said.

The NGOs, namely Basel Action Network (USA), Fronteras Comunes (Mexico), Jatam (Mining Advocacy Network, Indonesia), Occupational and Environmental health Network of India, Oxfam Solidarity Belgium, People’s Health Movement (USA) and RightOnCanada (Canada), urged the government to “relook the issue seriously” in a manner that is “transparent, fair and convincing to all stakeholders”.