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| Lynas Gebeng: The Buck stops at AELB, action please! |
I don't like this report, the merry go round between the Minister concerned and the AELB has got to stop, it is eating away investor confidence, somebody must make a stand and that will be AELB which must issue the TOL license ASAP, so that the Lynas Gebeng Plant can start operations and scientific measurements are taken and transformed into data that can be examined and the right conclusion be taken:
Ongkili wants AELB’s answers on Lynas by this month
By Shannon Teoh
May 18, 2012
KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — Datuk Seri Maximus Ongkili has ordered the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) to respond over issues raised by residents appealing against the nuclear regulator’s decision to award Lynas Corp a licence for its controversial rare earths plant.
The science, technology and innovation minister wrote to the legal representatives of the three residents who filed the appeal under the AELB Act in February saying “there are several issues raised by the appellants that require comments from the board.”
“The board has been ordered to comment and respond on these issues by May 31,” he wrote in the letter dated May 15.
Ongkili added that the residents will be informed of his decision after all information has been weighed up and repeated the AELB’s statement earlier this week that the issuance of a temporary operating license (TOL) for the RM2.5 billion project is suspended until the appeal is disposed of.
The AELB said yesterday it must wait for the science minister to decide on the appeal but not a parliamentary review of Lynas Corp’s controversial rare earths plant before issuing a licence to the Australian miner whose plant has raised fears of radiation pollution.
Director general Raja Datuk Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan told reporters the parliamentary select committee (PSC), which will end its tenure on July 18, will only “study safety, health and environmental issues” and “the process and implementation of licensing procedures.”
“The PSC is studying whether the current laws and standards are appropriate but it will not look into the issuing of the licence (to Lynas). The ‘stay of execution’ is only until the ministerial appeal is completed,” he said.
An aide to Ongkili also told The Malaysian Insider the minister will decide on the April 17 appeal hearing “soon” but is currently preoccupied with ministerial programmes in Sabah and the local Kaamatan harvest festival until May 21.
The committee on Lynas was approved in Dewan Rakyat in March amid opposition furore over the alleged lack of terms of reference and suspicion that the nine-man panel will 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.
But Raja Aziz pointed out that the AELB would still have to approve the issuing of the licence if Ongkili dismisses the residents’ appeal “so it will have to brought to the board to see whether it wants to wait for the PSC or not.”
Lynas had said last week it was on track to start up its rare earth plant in Malaysia next month after Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin, chairman of the PSC on the refinery that has raised fears of radiation pollution, called it “the safest rare earths plant in the world.”
It also said in April delays in obtaining the licence for its facility, which was initially approved in January, may have “very serious consequences” for RM80 billion worth of rare earth orders as it is “sold out for the next 10 years.”
The Sydney-based firm said last year the first phase of its plant, which was initially slated to fire up last September, will produce rare earth worth RM8 billion annually.
Prices for rare earths, highly sought-after for high-technology products such as smartphones, wind turbines and bombs, have since dipped slightly as the market reacted to record highs resulting from export quotas imposed since 2009 by China, which controls 97 per cent of production.
The AELB had said in January it would approve a TOL, which allows Lynas to operate for an initial period of two years, subject to added conditions including identifying a suitable long-term waste disposal site.
This was despite Lynas insisting it can reprocess its residue, which it says has only very low levels of radiation, into safe commercial products.
Lynas has said the plant would be ready to fire up operations within three weeks of receiving the go-ahead.
Read more in TMI here.
The Lynas Gebeng plant is safe, it is vouched by eminent scientists and scientific institutions all it needs is tight supervision by the AELB and third party monitors who will ensure all the required safety procedures are followed.
The Gomen's dithering and passing the buck attitude on Lynas Gebeng is getting rather ridiculous, jobs are at stake here, foreign investors are looking at us with zoomed telescope, Malaysia's future as an investor's haven is on the line and other competing countries are laughing their heads off with the Gomen flip flopping just because it has been politicised by the Opposition parties.
This is a video by people who are finding the Lynas Gebeng issue blown up to farcical and comical proportions by the Pakatan and their associates:
Sad that the Gomen of the day played along with the Pakatan Jokers.
Siapa akan rugi akhirnya?
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