No buts, the Lynas plant has to go
MP SPEAKS In light of the recent media spin regarding the position of Pakatan Rakyat leadership on the closing down of the Lynas plant, I am reiterating my position as MP for Kuantan and as one of the earliest opponent of the Lynas plant since way back in November 2008 when I first brought the issue up in Parliament; that I adhere to the firm conviction and believe that the Lynas plant must not be allowed to operate in Gebeng nor anywhere else in Malaysia for that matter.
Pakatan Rakyat's' manifesto is crystal clear. We shall shut down Lynas once Pakatan Rakyat gets to form the federal government.
Even if there is a 1 percent chance that the Lynas plant is proven safe, it still shouldn't be there in Gebeng, where it was constructed on peat soil, with the underground water to be found less than a metre deep from the surface.
In addition, the plant is built too near residents, the river as well as the sea.
The right place for the Lynas plant is in the middle of the Australian desert where the toxic radioactive waste can be returned to it's place of origin, which is in Mount Weld in Western Australia.
No industry is 100 percent accident-free, and the precautionary principle applies especially so in the case of Lynas, where we are dealing with toxic radioactive waste.
14 billion years of poisoning awaits
The thorium from one of the waste streams, (WLP solid waste) is also a known carcinogen with a half life of 14 billion years.
In addition there's also the risk of exposure to the internal emitters as well as tonnes and tonnes of other toxic waste.
Malaysia as a nation should not be burdened to manage the contamination from the radioactive waste should there be a leakage of the Residue Storage Facility (RSF), 10 or 20 years down the road from now.
We are still managing the contamination from Asian Rare Earth (ARE) in Bukit Merah to this day, and we do not seem to have learnt our lesson.
It was a wrong decision by the current Malaysian government to have allowed Lynas to operate.
The Pakatan Rakyat government will correct that wrong decision once we get into the federal government and Lynas will be stopped as promised in the Manifesto Rakyat irregardless.
FUZIAH SALLEH is Kuantan MP and PKR national vice-president.
