The Malaysian government is set to begin negotiations on two critical free trade agreements (FTA) with economic powers, the European Union and United States (and eight other nations).
The first round of negotiations with the European Union will take place on 6th-7th December, 2010 in Brussels.
The negotiations with the USA (and eight other nations) will take place in New Zealand from 6th -10th December 2010 in the context of Trans-Pacific Partnership FTA (TPP).
The countries involved in the TPP negotiations include Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Singapore, Vietnam, Chile and Peru. The TPP is an idea mooted by the US and thus replaces the country’s bilateral approach.
This will be a second effort on the part of Malaysia to clinch an FTA deal with both the EU and USA.
Malaysia, EU, and the USA have committed themselves to negotiate a comprehensive and ambitious agreement.
This entails negotiations on trade, services, and investments, including intellectual property rights, government procurement, and competition.
FTA agreements, in the context of Investor-to-state dispute mechanism, gives rights to investors to legally challenge governments before international tribunals established at the World Bank or International Court of Arbitration in Paris. This undermines sovereignty of nations.
Liberalisation of the government procurement sector, once considered off-limits to foreign companies is a major departure in the country’s social and development policy.
These FTAs are not just about exchange of goods and services (i.e. trade) but have far reaching implications on the sovereignty of the nation, development and public policy, including public health, environment and growth of small and medium industries .
And as a result have implications for people, business, and special interest groups.
Asean countries such as Thailand and the Philippines require parliamentary scrutiny and endorsement before respective governments formally sign on to FTA agreements.
Furthermore, these meetings are held in public and involve testimony of experts, civil society groups, academics and special interest groups in order to shed light on these agreements.
However, in Malaysia parliament has no avenue to discuss debate or comment on FTAs which have critical significance on sovereignty, development and public policy, issues that have major ramification to the lives of Malaysians’.
FTA negotiations are conducted in a non-transparent manner. Once these agreements are concluded, national laws are amended to reflect the commitments made at the negotiations.
Parliament will have no choice but to accept the decisions.
Parliament is thus reduced to the role of a rubber stamp. It has no choice but to accept the decisions of the negotiations. Clearly, the executive is not accountable to parliament.
Also, parliament will not be able to provide the necessary oversight and an effective check and balance mechanism in protecting and promoting public interests.
It will be a shame if leaked documents are the basis of information and debate, when governments have responsibility to ensure transparency, good governance and right to information.
As such, the FTAs must have a parliamentary oversight mechanism in place and more importantly, sovereignty over legislations. For this reason, the Malaysian parliament needs to establish a parliamentary select committee on FTAs.
Charles Santiago
Member of Parliament, Klang.
Source : Thenutgraph
21 Nov 08 : 6.58PM
By Ng Boon Hooi
ngboonhooi@thenutgraph.com
5 Indian MPs attended the discussion
PETALING JAYA, 21 Nov: Pakatan Rakyat parliamentarians want a parliamentary select committee on poor and vulnerable groups to be set up.
“The select committee is important as we need some oversight on (government) allocations for the poor. This is to ensure that the expenditure is properly utilised in view of a possible layoffs next year,” said Charles Santiago, member of parliament (MP) for Klang.
Santiago was one of five Pakatan Rakyat MPs who were involved in a roundtable discussion on Indian community issues this morning in a meeting room in Parliament.
The purpose of the discussion was to evaluate if there was an improvement among the Indian Malaysian communities under the Pakatan Rakyat state governments since the March 2008 general election.
About 40 representatives from non-governmental organisations and lawyers attended this discussion.
Santiago said the parliamentary select committee could also help the government develop a methodology to come up with a realistic poverty line indicator.
The poverty-line income based on the Ninth Malaysia Plan considers a family poor if it earns below RM720 in Peninsula Malaysia, RM960 in Sabah, and RM830 in Sarawak. In the hardcore poverty category, earnings are RM430, RM540 and RM520 respectively.
Santiago claimed the present poverty line indicator was unrealistic, adding that, “The government policy on poverty reduction is a clear failure.”
For their part, the Pakatan Rakyat MPs have agreed to meet on 25 Nov to form a caucus for poor and vulnerable groups.
In addition, the MPs will also propose to Pakatan Rakyat state governments in Kedah, Kelantan, Perak, Penang and Selangor to offer micro projects to these groups.
“Local councils have many projects worth between RM1,000 to RM5,000 that could be offered to vulnerable groups who are now hard hit by the economic crisis,” explained Santiago.
Among the other issues raised at the roundtable meeting included stateless Indians, the low incomes of single mothers, the lack of allocation for Tamil schools, assistance for Indian upstart entrepreneurs and the Indian Malaysian representation in the civil service.
Dr Denison Jayasooria, chairperson of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Working Group of the Malaysian Human Rights Commission, said the government’s move to set a special cabinet committee on Indian welfare in June 2008 is significant.
However, the lack of a proper secretariat is a setback, said Denison, who compared the performance of the Barisan Nasional government to the Pakatan Rakyat run states.
“The Pakatan state governments need to have a specific strategic plan to assist Indian groups. They can use local mechanisms to articulate local concerns and promote local participation,” said Denison.
Chong Eng, the sole non-Indian MP at the roundtable meeting, noted the plight of Indian Malaysian women who were victims of domestic violence.
DAP MP for Bukit Mertajam urged that special attention be given to these women.
The absence of Chinese and Malay Pakatan Rakyat MPs was glaring this morning. Santiago vowed to invite more non-Indian MPs and representatives from Penang, Kedah and Perak government for the next roundtable discussion.
Source: Malaysiakini
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- SM Mohd Idris
- 5:12PM Jun 11, 2012
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During the last few weeks the public has heard the wildly positive and optimistic views of both the government and some local scientists concerning the Lynas plant in Gebeng, Kuantan.
On 20th March, the Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti), Dr Maximus Ongkili, told the Dewan Rakyat that the Lynas plant is safe and not harmful to public health.
He said that the effluent from the plant contained low radioactive material. He explained that the effluent was not categorised as a radioactive material waste by the International Atomic Energy Agency, as it contained natural radioactive material (‘Ongkili: Proposed Gebeng Rare Earth Plant Is Safe’, Bernama, 23 March 2011).
Unfortunately, he failed to give the effluent the proper name: Technologically-Enhanced, Naturally-Occurring Radioactive Material (Tenorm).
Tenorm and Fallacy of Molten Salt Reactor (MSR)
Tenorm is produced when activities such as uranium mining, or sewage sludge treatment, concentrate or expose radioactive materials that occur naturally in ores, soils, water, or other natural materials.
In other words, this natural radioactive material has been made dangerous because it was removed from the ground and concentrated by mechanical and chemical processes.
It has been exported by Australia and will be left in Malaysia as waste by Lynas.
The radioactive material does not disappear once it reaches and is processed in Malaysia, and this dangerous material will be left in Malaysia.
Malaysians will need to keep this securely away from humans for hundreds of thousands of years.
Lynas and AELB have made the Tenorm sound like low level waste by merely diluting the waste until it conforms with IAEA regulations.
Diluting does not make the radiation ‘go away’, and if the diluting liquid evaporates, you will again have concentrated radioactive material very harmful to people. The uranium and thorium will not evaporate with time.
Bear in mind that Australia has categorically stated that it will refuse to receive radioactive materials from other countries.
During the recent parliamentary select committee (PSC) public hearings on Lynas, nuclear physicist Dr Abdul Rahman Omar reportedly praised the value of the thorium wastes i.e. one tonne of thorium “can generate 1 gigawatt of electricity a year which is worth RM 1 billion to RM 2 billion, multiply this by 2,000 tonnes a year that the factory will produce, then it is worth between RM2 trillion to RM4 trillion in electricity”. (Read nuclear energy and nuclear reactor).
He added that this technology dubbed Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) was mooted by the Americans at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, between 1968 to 1972 but was abandoned in favour of uranium due to its abundance. “China is now working very hard on using thorium for energy generation”.
Alternatively, the gypsum by product produced from Lynas could be sold to China which would extract the thorium for energy production”, he said (‘Lynas’ thorium can generate RM4 trillion in energy’, Nigel Aw, Malaysiakini, May 21, 2012).
However, according to an article published in the UK Guardian (23 June 2011), debunking thorium as a greener nuclear option, it states that “There is a significant sticking point to the promotion of thorium as the ‘great green hope’ of clean energy production: It remains unproven on a commercial scale. While it has been around since the 1950s (and an experimental 10MW LFTR (liquid fluoride thorium reactor) did run for five years during the 1960s at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US, though using uranium and plutonium as fuel) it is still a next generation nuclear technology – theoretical”.
The article further states that although China has announced that it intends to develop a thorium MSR, nuclear radiologist Peter Karamoskos of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), says “the world shouldn’t hold its breath”.
He added that “Without exception, [thorium reactors] have never been commercially viable, nor do any of the intended new designs even remotely seem to be viable. Like all nuclear power production they rely on extensive taxpayer subsidies; the only difference is that with thorium and other breeder reactors these are of an order of magnitude greater, which is why no government has ever continued their funding”.
The article states that “Those who support renewables say they will have come so far in cost and efficiency terms by the time the technology is perfected and upscaled that thorium reactors will already be uneconomic. Indeed, if renewables had a fraction of nuclear’s current subsidies they could already be light years ahead”.
Health risks of thorium and other tenorms
All other issues aside, thorium is still nuclear energy, say environmentalists, its reactors disgorging the same toxic by-products and fissile waste with the same millennial half-lives.
Oliver Tickell, author of ‘Kyoto2′, says the fission materials produced from thorium are of a different spectrum to those from uranium-235, but ‘”nclude many dangerous-to-health alpha and beta emitters”.
Anti-nuclear campaigner Peter Karamoskos goes further, dismissing a ‘dishonest fantasy’ perpetuated by the pro-nuclear lobby. “Thorium cannot in itself power a reactor; unlike natural uranium, it does not contain enough fissile material to initiate a nuclear chain reaction. As a result it must first be bombarded with neutrons to produce the highly radioactive isotope uranium-233 – “so these are really U-233 reactors’,” says Karamoskos.
“This isotope is more hazardous than the U-235 used in conventional reactors”, he adds, “because it produces U-232 as a side effect (half life: 160,000 years), on top of familiar fission by-products such as technetium-99 (half life: up to 300,000 years) and iodine-129 (half life: 15.7 million years).
“Add in actinides such as protactinium-231 (half life: 33,000 years) and it soon becomes apparent that thorium’s superficial cleanliness will still depend on digging some pretty deep holes to bury the highly radioactive waste”.
Referring to the UK, The Guardian article says that “with billions of pounds already spent on nuclear research, reactor construction and decommissioning costs – dwarfing commitments to renewables – and proposed reform of the UK electricity markets apparently hiding subsidies to the nuclear industry, the thorium dream is considered by many to be a dangerous diversion”.
Citing Jean McSorley senior consultant for Greenpeace’s nuclear campaign: “Even if thorium technology does progress to the point where it might be commercially viable, it will face the same problems as conventional nuclear: it is not renewable or sustainable and cannot effectively connect to smart grids. The technology is not tried and tested, and none of the main players is interested. Thorium reactors are no more than a distraction”.
According to Dr. Rosalie Bertell, who is a radiation expert, thorium reactors also produce a lot of Americium, which is much more toxic than plutonium. “I do not think that, even if thorium some day becomes a viable option, they will ever want to separate out the thorium from the Malaysian waste, where it has been significantly diluted so that it appears to be below regulatory concern.
“You cannot say it is a valuable commodity and also release it as of no concern! Moreover, you are not dealing with pure thorium, but with radioactive material with a long list of radioactive decay products some of which are very radioactive. New reactors will get their thorium from India or Australia. Malaysia would be considered a secondary or tertiary source,” she states.
In other words, there is no economic possibility or feasibility that anyone will use the Malaysian waste for thorium when there are large direct sources of thorium to be had immediately in Australia or India.
Dr. Bertell is a nuclear health expert who has done extensive research on nuclear health impacts all over the world including the Marshall Islands, India, Germany, Ukraine, US and Canada. She has been a consultant to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the US Environmental Protection Agency. She was a key witness during the Bukit Merah court hearings.
However, contrary to the world experts, the local medical and nuclear so-called experts have recently testified to the PSC that the thorium produced from Lynas was too low to pose significant health dangers.
In contrast to what the PSC has been told by the local so-called experts, the health impacts of radiation are not benign. In a comparative study by V. T. Padmanabhan et al of inhabitants of regions of normal and high background radiation in Kerala from 1988 – 1994, the researchers showed that thorium health damage from monazite sands was evident (International Journal of Health Services Vol. 34 No. 3 pp483-515, 2004).
The study revealed that there was a high incidence of heritable anomalies in the high background region (HBRR). There was a statistically significant increase of Down syndrome, autosomal dominant anomalies and multifactorial diseases and an insignificant increase of autosomal recessive and X-linked recessive anomalies in the HBRR.
The main findings of the study have been summarised as follows:
- The relative risk for chromosomal, autosomal dominant, and multifactorial anomalies is higher in the HBRR.
- For congenital anomalies (WHO’s International Classification of Diseases, ICD 740-757), there is no difference between the areas. Within the study and control areas, ‘nonmigrant’ couples have 51 percent and 61 percent excess relative risk (ERR), respectively, in comparison to ‘migrant’ couples. The ERR among the related versus the unrelated couples is 96 percent in the HBRR and 41 percent in the NRR (normal radiation region).
- Rates of multifactorial anomalies and multiple deaths are higher in the HBRR. Again, the related and the nonmigrant couples have higher risk than the migrants and the unrelated, respectively. The rates among the migrants in both areas are more or less the same.
- If all untoward outcomes other than Down syndrome and Mendelian anomalies are grouped together, 6.4 percent of the unrelated ‘migrants’ in the NRR are affected versus 16.4 percent of the related couples in the HBRR.
The authors suspect that exposure to radiation was genetically significant. “Besides the external radiation from beta particles and gamma rays from the soil, there is the possibility of internal exposure through air, water, and food. Soman (27) estimated the per capita daily uptake of radium-228 by the study population as 4.72 Bq.
“Based on the average consumption of sardines, Van de Laar (18) estimated the daily intake as less than 0.01 Bq per person. Since the coastal land is less fertile and farming and husbandry are restricted to small pockets, the internal exposure is mainly from poultry products, fish, and accidental ingestion of fine grains of monazite in childhood.”
They revealed that the mean cumulative exposure to external radiation during the reproductive life of people living in the high-background radiation regions is 18 rads for women and 22 rads for men, six times the exposure in the normal radiation region.
Conclusion
Thorium from Lynas is Tenorm and a radioactive waste which has serious health risks.
We urge the PSC and the government to seriously weigh the published and reviewed scientific findings and views of the international experts quoted above before decisions on Lynas are made.
Source: The Malaysian Insider
June 22, 2012
JUNE 22 — Mr Prime Minister, thank you for clearing the air on the Lynas rare earth refinery in Gebeng. You say scientific facts have shown that it is safe, sir.
We have no doubt it is safe, sir. If it wasn’t, your “Janji Ditepati” government wouldn’t allow it on our blessed soil.
Just so you know, sir, the people in Kuantan think differently. Because, sir, they live in proximity to this great venture that has a 12-year tax holiday courtesy of your administration, sir.
And I have to agree with them, sir. Would you like even a remotely-toxic plant in your neighbourhood, sir?
Would you like something like that in your childhood home in Pekan or your personal residence in Jalan Duta or near Seri Perdana, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, sir?
You see, sir, allowing the Lynas project to go ahead above the considerations of the Kuantan residents is morally wrong. And if I was them, sir I would exercise my voting power in Kuantan and Pahang and at the national level to ensure those who approved the venture get kicked out of office.
Just my personal thoughts, sir, because you are going to the polls soon. Well, if you don’t flip-flop, you have until April 28 to decide on the general election, sir,
As you yourself said, sir, when taking office in April 2009: The era of government know best is over.
People know better, sir, and their power through the ballot box is a crucial weapon for you to know that you are at their mercy in the 13th general election. Not just in Kuantan or Pahang, sir, but the entire country.
If you can allow this to happen in your home state, sir, what wouldn’t you allow it elsewhere in Malaysia? At least your father brought them Kuantan Port, no matter how badly it was done.
But you, sir, why do you inflict this on your home state?
Till today, it is inconceivable why you and your government are so keen on bringing an investment that many Malaysians don’t want and don’t trust.
Lynas can go many more places, sir, if there are willing hosts. Even their own country, Australia, would welcome them, sir. Or won’t they?
The parliamentary select committee (PSC), sir, had only one job. To convince the people that Lynas is safe.
Yes, sir, it is safe. But their waste dump could, I repeat, sir, could be not safe.
The PSC, sir, was nothing more than a rubber stamp, another charade by an administration big on gimmicks and slogan and “show” RCIs”.
You know, sir, I like you because you have great ideas for 1 Malaysia but I don’t agree with you on this. This is for the country’s future, sir, not yours as our prime minister.
Therefore, Mr Prime Minister who has yet to get his own mandate, if the objective of Pakatan Rakyat is to kill off this project if it takes over Putrajaya, I will agree with them and vote for them.
If there other Malaysian who feel strongly enough about Lynas as I do, they should also vote for Pakatan, sir.
When that happens, sir, the Gebeng plant will be a white elephant.
We don’t owe anything to the Australians, sir. We shouldn’t be cowed by words or threats from some Australian businessman, sir.
You know how Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad treated the Australians, sir. Follow him. And repeat after me, Malaysia belongs to us.
We decide, sir. We decide if Lynas should be a guest here for 12 tax-free years, employing just 300 people and hiring our transport operators to produce something for the world.
We also decide on the next government, sir.
If you want to be leading that government, sir, you have to decide to scrap the project. Because, if you don’t, sir, I and the rest of Malaysia will make sure you lose Putrajaya and go down in history as the first BN leader to lose big.
You have time to decide and save your political career and legacy, Mr Prime Minister. Or leave it to us to decide for you, sir.
* Jaleel Hameed reads The Malaysian Insider.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider
Source: The Malaysian Insider
By Shannon Teoh
June 21, 2012
People protest outside the Lynas refinery in Gebeng. Himpunan Hijau today vowed to keep up protests against the RM2.5 billion project. — Reuters pic
KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — Himpunan Hijau warned Lynas Corp and the government today of “wave after wave” of protests against the impending issuance of a temporary operating licence (TOL) for the Australian miner’s rare earth plant, beginning with a day-long assembly this weekend.The coalition of groups opposed to the controversial refinery in Kuantan told a press conference today that it will not stop until “the world’s largest radioactive dump” is forced out.
“Leaders of the current regime will not pay attention to the suffering and anxieties of the community of Kuantan. They are in the midst of their own political life and death struggle. Correcting their wrongdoings is not on their agenda.
“Lynas may be receiving its TOL but we can assure them the people of Kuantan will never allow their evil acts to go unchallenged. If the TOL is issued, the authorities will see wave after wave of people’s actions,” chairman Wong Tack said.
He also said the RM2.5 billion project will be “the world’s largest radioactive waste dump” despite the Sydney-based firm’s insistence that radiation would be at very low levels as “it will break down and alpha particles will release very strong radiation into the food chain.”
Lynas cleared probably its final major hurdle to getting its TOL after a parliamentary select committee (PSC) called for the licence to be issued as “scientific facts” show that the controversial Kuantan plant is safe.
The positive feedback tabled in the PSC report came just four days after the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti) dismissed an appeal against the facility by residents living nearby and instead imposed two conditions that Lynas said it will have no problems satisfying.
However, residents who filed the appeal to MOSTI have said they will challenge the minister’s decision in court, calling the conditions “flimsy” and “not specific enough and will in no way safeguard or appease the fears of residents living in the area.”
The parliamentary committee on Lynas was approved in the Dewan Rakyat in March amid opposition furore over the alleged lack of terms of reference and suspicion that the nine-man panel would be used to “whitewash” the issue.
Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers also questioned the point of the select committee given that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had already said the government will not be bound by the panel’s findings.
Lynas had said last month that it was on track to start up what it says will be the world’s largest rare earth plant within weeks after Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin, chairman of the parliamentary committee, called it “the safest rare earth plant in the world.”
It also said in April that delays in obtaining the licence for its facility, which was initially approved in January, may have “very serious consequences” for the RM80 billion worth of rare earth orders already received as it is “sold out for the next 10 years.”
Himpunan Hijau plans to end its 24-hour protest this weekend by marching up to Lynas’s Gebeng plant on Sunday morning after a night of speeches called “rising flame of anger, turn Lynas to Ash.”
Source: Free Malaysia Today
Nuclear scientist Che Rosli is against giving a TOL to Lynas.
KUALA LUMPUR: Hulu Langat MP Che Rosli Che Mat has rejected claims that he broke ranks with his PAS colleagues by saying that the Lynas plant was safe.
He said he had consistently stated that radiation levels at the plant were low, but added that this was not the same as saying Lynas’ operations did not threaten the health of the Gebeng community.
“Yes, external radiation is really low,” he told a press conference. “As a nuclear scientist, I know about radiation, but when it comes to safety of chemical handling and waste management, these are issues that need to be given attention by other experts.”
He said the government should not yet give Lynas a temporary operating licence, disagreeing with one of the 31 recommendations of the parliamentary select committee that the Dewan Rakyat accepted yesterday.
He recommended that Lynas conduct a lab simulation to determine the amount of radioactive residues its plant would produce and to take radiation readings.
He added that Lynas should also show how it would treat the wastes from its operations before releasing them into a nearby river.
“We need a lab scale, not a TOL,” he said. “We need a simulation so we know the real impact on health.
“The PSC has done a good job of collating all the problems and concerns of the public, but the answers are not complete.”
He said the lab simulation would take only two months to conduct and the cost would not be high.
“Without more data, the PSC was too quick to come to a conclusion, compared to the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB).”
He said the PSC failed to address public concerns adequately with empirical facts.
“There are no statistics on the Bukit Merah rare earth plant, on the correlations between cancer cases and the plant. I’m sure AELB has the data.
“I also see that my friends—scientists—testified for the committee, but I could not find any answers from them that could be considered scientific in the report.
“So I can’t accept all of the PSC recommendations. There are problems.”
BN MPs have been using Che Rosli’s statement about low radiation levels in Gebeng as evidence that some opposition politicians were not against the controversial Lynas plant.
Source: The Malaysian Isider
By Shannon Teoh
June 19, 2012
Lynas said last month that it was within weeks of starting up its rare earth plant in Gebeng. — File pic
KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 — Parliament tonight approved a select committee’s recommendations on the controversial Lynas rare earth plant that include handing the Australian miner its long-delayed temporary operating licence (TOL) despite continued questions over disposal of potentially radioactive waste.Opposition lawmakers quizzed panel chief Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin over the Sydney-based firm’s commitment to ship out waste if it fails to meet local radiation standards, saying it would also not meet regulations at its source in Western Australia.
“If it breaches our standards, then it will breach Australian standards as well. So what will happen then?” PKR vice president Chua Tian Chang asked during a debate on the panel report.
This forced Khaled to admit that “Western Australia will only accept non-radioactive residue and it would not be possible to get a full commitment to receive the waste.”
He instead pointed out that Lynas, whose RM2.5 billion rare earth refinery in Kuantan has ignited fears of radiation pollution among residents there, had given a written undertaking to ship out any radioactive waste and added he was “confident they will honour it.”
The higher education minister earlier explained that if Lynas’s plans to recycle waste it said has “very low level radiation” failed, it would have to store the residue in a permanent disposal facility at a site to be finalised within 10 months of being issued the TOL.
The Pasir Gudang MP added that the company has also deposited a US$50 million (RM160 million) financial surety to cover any eventuality.
He also said Lynas will be forced to cease operations if it failed to keep to radiological and environmental projections proposed in its TOL application or if the level of radiation to the general public exceeded the safe limit of 1 milliSievert per year.
Lynas cleared what may be its final hurdle to getting its TOL after the parliamentary select committee (PSC) called for the licence to be issued as “scientific facts” show that the controversial Kuantan plant is safe.
The positive feedback tabled in the PSC report came just four days after the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti) dismissed an appeal against the Australian miner’s plant by residents living nearby and instead imposed two conditions that Lynas said it will have no problems satisfying.
The firm said in an immediate response that the findings were “yet another affirmation of the science behind” its plant and “the safety features built into it.”
“We look forward to the issuance of the temporary operating licence so we can demonstrate that safety to the Malaysian community,” Lynas said in a statement sent to The Malaysian Insider.
The Sydney-based firm also told The Malaysian Insider it will submit proposals today to meet the new terms.
However, residents who filed the appeal to Mosti have said they will challenge the minister’s decision in court, calling the conditions “flimsy” and “not specific enough and will in no way safeguard or appease the fears of residents living in the area.” The parliamentary committee on Lynas was approved in the Dewan Rakyat in March amid opposition furore over the alleged lack of terms of reference and suspicion that the nine-man panel would be used to “whitewash” the issue.
Pakatan Rakyat lawmakers also questioned the point of the select committee given that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had already said the government will not be bound by the panel’s findings.
Lynas had said last month that it was on track to start up its rare earth plant in Malaysia within weeks after Khaled called it “the safest rare earth plant in the world.”
It also said in April that delays in obtaining the licence for its facility, which was initially approved in January, may have “very serious consequences” for the RM80 billion worth of rare earth orders already received as it is “sold out for the next 10 years.”
We welcome the report of the Parliamentary Select Committee which has produced its recommendations, including the upgrading of the standards used by the AELB. But while we appreciate the effort, this is clearly a document which has only looked at ways to keep the Lynas Advance Material Plant (LAMP) in operation.
The key area – returning the radioactive waste to Western Australia – has not been looked at although it was one of the earliest pre-conditions to the government granting Lynas a Temporary Operating License.
Violating pre-requisite to the Temporary Operating License (TOL)
Over a ten-year period of the plant’s operation, the total volume of wastes will amount to 2,766,600 cubic metro. Over a 20-year period, as Lynas continues to enjoy its tax break, the waste would presumably have doubled. And it is highly inconceivable that there will be enough soil and technology available to “dilute” the wastes and remove its radiation level to natural ground level radiation. This is especially crucial as Lynas plans to store the wastes onside in the Residue Storage Facility (RSF).
The PSC recommendation has noted that some of the regulations imposed by the Malaysian government are better than international standards. But according to the Lynas document which is under review, the management of radioactive residue generated from the decommissioning activities of LAMP upon cessation of operations after 20 years are not within the scope of the Lynas Radioactive Waste Management Plan or RWMP but presented in a separate document titled “Decommissioning Plan (Environ 2011b). This is certainly not in tandem with international standards.
Malaysia is still in the midst of cleaning up after the Asian Rare Earth factory was decommissioned at the cost of USD100 million, the largest in the rare earth industry. The rare earth factory was set-up 30 years ago and we are yet to wipe out all traces of residue. Lynas will produce 20,000 tonne of radioactive material, ten times more than the Asian Rare earth.
It is not clear if a Permanent Disposal Facility (PDF) has been identified. But the managing director for LynasDatukMashalAhamd has said that a PDF will be needed in a worst case scenario where it is unable to reprocess the waste into a commercial product. He also said – “we have 17 years before we even need to identify where is the PDF..we are working on commercial applications…Once we find all this, we can even forget a Residue Storage Facility. Maybe DatukMashal must be reminded that we are not working on hypothesis or possibilities here because it involves the lives of tens of thousands of people.
And if by commercial product, he is alluding to the testimony of Prof Dr Abdul Rahman Omar, then he better think again. Nuclear radiologist Peter Karamoskos of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said that without exception, thorium reactors have never been commercially viable, nor do any of the intended new designs even remotely seem to be viable, Like all nuclear power production, they rely on extensive taxpayer subsidies. This was reported in The Guardian last June.
But again why are we talking about a storage facility in Malaysia when it was made clear that one of the prerequisite to the Temporary Operating License or TOL is that the waste be shipped back to Western Australia.
The Australian government reiterated that it will not accept responsibility for any waste material produced by Lynas, although one of the five conditions attached to the recent approval of its temporary operating license is that it must take full responsibility for waste management from its plant including returning the waste to the source, if necessary.
In an official statement to Free Malaysia Today, the Western Australian Minister for Mines and Petroleum, Norman Moore, asserted that “Australia does not support the importation and storage of other countries’ radioactive waste”. But in a media briefing, AELB director-general, Raja Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan, gave his assurance that the board would insist on a letter of undertaking from Lynas Australia that it would adhere to this condition.
So where is the consistency in the approach the government has taken in relations to Lynas? It is clear the UMNO-led government is doing everything possible to allow Lynas to start its operations.
Malaysia’s minister of innovation, science and technology rejected an appeal by local residents against Lynas’s temporary operating permit on June 15, while imposing extra conditions on the plant. The permit granted in February, subject to conditions, has been held up due to appeals by protesters to government and in court. Lynas Executive Chairman Nicholas Curtis said the plant has passed every review it has subjected to and looks forward to the issuance of the Temporary Operating License.
Without Lynas sending back its waste to be managed in Western Australia, these recommendations are null and void. If its not so, then clearly the government is facilitating the operations of Lynas, despite strong protests and going back on its own guidelines.
While I have repeatedly said this, let me say it again:
Why didn’t Lynas set-up the rare earth plant near its source of extraction in Western Australia as it would have saved a huge amount of money in shipping costs?
2. Why didn’t Lynas obtain an approval from the authorities in Western Australia to set-up the plant?
3. Could the authorities in Western Australia be concerned about the possible radiation leaks, health hazards, birth defects, lead poisoning and other complications?
4. Shouldn’t this in itself raise a red flag with the Malaysian authorities?
5. Is the RM700 million in foreign investment more important to the Malaysian government than the lives of its citizens?
Health over investment?
The PSC has outlined a guideline to look into health measures for the people, wording it to say that this was undertaken to arrest the fears of the public. Severe birth defects, eight leukemia cases over five years in a community of 11,000, tears and anguish of the poor people from a largely shoe-making community – these are not news headlines. Neither is it the plot of a movie.
These are the consequences of carelessly allowing the Asian Rare Earth factory to be built in Bukit Merah, Perak in 1982. When Mitsubishi Chemical started operating its rare earth factory, the villagers complained of choking sensation, pungent smell, coughs and colds.
The community also saw a sharp rise in the cases of infant deaths, congenital disease, leukemia and lead poisoning. Thirty years later, it has not wiped out the memories and heartache of the villagers who lost their children and loved ones. Only the government is feigning ignorance.
According to the Consumer Association of Penang (CAP), the arbitrary classification of radioactive wastes radically differs from the latest International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) classification of radioactive wastes. It further says the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) has arbitrarily set its own safety standards for radiation exposure, which is not in accordance with international standards. The AELB standards would be used to exempt and clear Lynas’ radioactive wastes for reuse and recycle. The exposure to radioactive waste was one of the causes that led to high levels of lead poisoning and other severe health complications of the people in Bukit Merah.
The severe illnesses were detected years after the Asian Rare Earth factory had started its operations. Are we going to repeat this? And what does the panel propose in terms of monitoring the health of the people, screening for potential exposure to radiation, follow-ups, the team of experts who would be at the disposal of the public and also determine who gets screened and tested? The crushing of ore also releases Radon, which can travel thousands of miles according to wind direction. Does this mean special arrangements would be put in place to monitor all Malaysians?
Without giving much thought to the process of monitoring the health of the people, ruling politicians have jumped on the bandwagon to parrot prime minister NajibTunRazak’s assurance that the factory is safe. International Trade and Industry minister Mustapa Mohamed said its policy would be based on laws, policies and the decision of the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB). Its about time the learned minister acknowledges that the lives of millions of people cannot be based on procedures.
I challenge the panel to answer this question – Can everyone of you say, without any doubt, that the Lynas plant poses no health threat to the people? Can you vouch that we would not see another repeat of the health disaster which happened in Bukit Merah?
The dangers of Thorium
Rocks and soil contain natural radioactivity, which also dissolves into ground water. The occurrence of these ‘naturally occurring radioactive materials’ (NORM) varies throughout the world, and may be more or less likely given the types of rocks and minerals in a particular area. NORM contributes a part of the natural ‘background’ exposure from radiation.
When resources are extracted from the earth, the natural radioactive material comes with those resources. In processing the desired resource, the radioactive material is removed and becomes a waste. The radioactive wastes from extraction and processing are called ‘Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material’ (TENORM) because human activity has concentrated the radioactivity or increased the likelihood of exposure by making the radioactive material more accessible to human contact.
In other words, this natural radioactive material has been made dangerous because it was removed from the ground and concentrated by mechanical and chemical processes.
We need to be concerned about TENORM because:
• It has the potential to cause elevated exposure to radiation.
• People may not be aware of TENORM materials and need information about them.
• Industries that generate these materials may need additional guidance to help manage and dispose of them in ways that protect people and the environment and are economically sound.
The most common naturally radioactive elements are uranium, thorium, and radium. Common sources of TENORM waste are mining and mineral processing, oil and gas production, and drinking water and wastewater treatment. The PSC report points out that Lynas is not a nuclear plant or a mining site. However, Lynas is going to extract rare earth from ore. The process of crushing the ore releases Throrium, which is radioactive. But adding a mechanical and chemical process to an existing radioactive material increases the potential risk of exposure.
AELB vs IAEA
According to the IAEA General Safety Guide on the category Exempt Waste -“The primary radiological basis for establishing values of activity concentration for the exemption of bulk amounts of material and for clearance is that the effective doses to individuals should be of the order of 10 microsieverts (uSv) or lease in a year. To take account of the occurrence of low probability events leading to higher radiation exposure, an additional criterion was used, namely the effective does due to such low probability events should not exceed 1mSv in a year…
This is in sharp contrast to the figure stated by Lynas in its Radiological Impact Assessment (RIA) report which states the highest possible does to be received by workers resulting from operation of the plant for the first 10 years are below 13mSv per year. If this is not an admission that the risk of exposure is 10 times more than that permitted under the IAEA regulation, I do not know what is.
Furthermore Radiology and environmental expert Prof Dr Ahmad TermiziRamli said the general perception was that the high levels of radioactive waste would result in deaths.”TheLynas plant will only produce one millisieverts (mSv) per year as required by law compared with the existing 2.4mSv background radiation already present in the air. Why did the learned Prof not take into account the exposure to the workers in the Lynas plant?
Nuclear physicist Dr Abdul Rahman Omar said the thorium waste which will be produced by Lynas can be used as fuel to generate between RM2 trillion to RM4 trillion worth of electricity a year.
“One tonne of thorium can produce the same amount of energy of 10 million tonnes of coal; imagine the energy that can be harnessed from this,” he is reported to have told the PSC committee.
In a world increasingly aware of and affected by global warming, the news that 2010 was a record year for greenhouse gases levels was something of a blow. And although China, Japan, US and India are pursuing it, the concept of thorium as a source for green energy remains inconclusive. The National Nuclear Laboratory said that the claims for thorium are overstated. Oliver Tickell, author of Kyoto2, says the fission materials produced from thorium are of a different spectrum to those from uranium-235, but ‘include many dangerous-to-health alpha and beta emitters’.
The final smirk from Lynas
Its rather strange that Lynas enjoyed operating from its premises – getting its structures concretised and putting together its logistics – while the Parliamentary Select Committee was plugging away at its report. It really does not make any sense but rather gave an impression that the recommendations of the committee would have no bearings whatsoever to the plant. Lynas, it seems, almost knew it would not be shut down however damning is the information unearthed by the committee. This is precisely why the opposition felt it was a total waste of time to sit on the panel.
When Malaysia, disregarding once again the strong protests registered by the people, rejected a bid to cancel the Temporary Operating License for Lynas, its share advanced as much as 15 cents (Australian) to A$1.01, the biggest gain since May 28 this year.
But in doing so and allowing Lynas to start its operations, the government has nonchalantly dismissed the value of peoples’ lives which are at stake.
Source: The Malaysian Insider
By Shannon Teoh
June 08, 2012
Bersih has roped in member of the public to help it weed out errors in the election system. — File pic
PETALING JAYA, June 8 — Up to 600 people have lodged complaints of electoral offences to Bersih since its “Jom Pantau (Let’s Monitor)” campaign was launched in February to enlist the aid of the public in exposing irregular electoral practices.Human rights group Komas, which spearheads the initiative as one of 84 NGOs that make up the electoral reforms movement, said today up to 30 per cent of 1,875 complaints in the campaign were made by individual members of the public.
“This shows that hundreds out there are watching you, so do the right thing. We always hear the response from the [Election Commission] saying these are ‘technical errors’. But it can’t happen hundreds of times,” Komas citizenship education co-ordinator Arul Prakkash told a press conference here.
Arul, who also co-ordinates “Jom Pantau”, said the 1,875 reports since the campaign was launched on February 10 centred mainly on alleged irregularities in the electoral roll, a major complaint by the opposition that has backed Bersih’s three public protests since 2007.
He added that after vetting over 500 complaints, 194 have been “verified and confirmed” as pointing to irregularities, such as duplicate identification numbers, names and birthdates as well as those who listed as voters or postal voters but who have never made such applications.
“We have written to the EC two weeks ago to seek a meeting on how to co-operate on this and asking that ‘Jom Pantau’ is allowed to be official election monitors for the next general election,” he said.
The reliability of the electoral roll has been widely questioned since a Parliamentary Select Committee was set up late last year to look into electoral improvements.
The panel completed its six-month tenure and submitted its findings to Parliament in late March but the opposition and civil society groups have criticised it for lacking specific recommendations on how to clean up the voter registry.
This led electoral reform movement Bersih to hold its third rally for free and fair elections on April 28, which saw tens of thousands being turn up in Kuala Lumpur before being dispersed by police.
Source: Malaysiakini
Civil society organisations that have endorsed the Bersih movement have urged the public not to be distracted by the government’s spin on the April 28 rally, but to bring the focus back to the demand for reforms toward clean and fair elections.
Representatives of 14 of the 84 endorsees called a press conference in Kuala Lumpur this afternoon to remind the people of Bersih’s eight demands.
“Bersih is not just about personalities, not just co-chairpersonsAmbiga Sreenevasan or A Samad Said. It is not about overthrowing the government, which is a spin by the government, but about clean and fair elections,” said Tan Jo Hann (left) of Pusat Komas and the Association of Selangor and Federal Territory Society.
Despite the support of hundreds of thousands of Malaysians who attended Bersih 3.0 rallies in 11 cities in the country and 80 cities across the globe, Tan noted that there has been no significant change or attention to the eight demands.
“The (recommendations of the) parliamentary select committee on electoral reform fall short of what is demanded by the Malaysians,” he said.
Election Commission (EC) chief Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof’s statement that the number of dubious voters on the electoral roll is just 0.3 percent of the total voters and that Malaysia’s electoral roll is the“cleanest in the world”, only shows that the EC is not sincere in addressing the issues, Tan said.
“Has it become legalised cheating in Malaysia? This is what we fear,” he said, reiterating a Bersih demand that the current election commissioners should resign en bloc.
Asked about EC deputy chairperson Wan Ahmad Wan Omar’s (right)description of Ambiga as a “destroyer of democracy” and his announcement that the commission has closed its doors to consultation with Bersih, Tan challenged Wan Ahmad to direct his remarks at the people.
“Is he saying that to the 250,000 people who came to the rally? If he wants to say it, don’t say it to Ambiga but to us. Is he saying all the 250,000 people are destroyers of democracy?
“It shows that he has missed the point. They (the EC) have not done their job well but have turned around to blame others … the focus is, our electoral roll sucks!”
Najib challenged
Should the government still refuse to recognise the problems despite all the revelations on electoral fraud and irregularities, then Najib Abdul Razak should take the noble way out and step down as prime minister, Tan said.
Asked to comment on MCA president Dr Chua Soi Lek’s claim that the Bersih 3.0 rally was hijacked by the opposition, he again deemed this to be spin to distract people from the core issue of clean and fair elections.
Ivy Josiah of the Women’s Aid Organisation noted that the political speeches made during the rally could not overshadow the will of hundreds of thousands protesters.
However, she declined comment when asked about PKR leaders continuing to negotiate with the police to enter the barricaded Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur, even after Bersih leaders had told the protestors to disperse.
She said it would not be fair to comment as the real circumstances surrounding the issue are still being probed, and the Bersih steering committee will carry out an evaluation on Friday.
The evaluation will also discuss the next step, should the authorities continue to ignore Bersih’s demands.
—
Charles Santiago 
