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Lynas waste: Who in the cabinet is lying?
Published:  Mar 3, 2012 8:19 AM
Updated: 8:22 AM

YOURSAY ‘Najib, do you realise that your ministers announced that the waste will be shipped back to Australia? And here you are telling us something else.'

Cabinet ignores Canberra, okays Lynas waste return

your say Wira: Assuming that the Oriental Daily News has reported correctly, the so-called cabinet decision raises suspicion.

1. Australia exports ore. The ore by itself is not polluting. It is the processing of the ore at Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (Lamp) that produces the radioactive by-products.

Our stance is like asking all uranium ore-producing countries to take back the radioactive wastes produced by nuclear plants all over the world.

2. Why did the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) grant Lamp a temporary operating licence when the latter had no guarantee from any country to take those radioactive wastes they would produce?

3. Why is Liow the spokesperson for the cabinet on this issue where this should be the jurisdiction of Ministry of International Trade and Industry (Miti) or the Environment Ministry?

4. Why did Liow only tell this decision to the Chinese dailies? Why did he not hold a press conference to announce the decision of the cabinet.

5. This is a lot like that cabinet decision on the RCI (royal commission of inquiry) for Sabah ICs issue. Liow was probably committing more than what the cabinet had decided.

Kit P: I don't like the idea of Australia exporting its polluting industry to Malaysia, but this so-called attempt to press the Canberra to take back the radioactive waste is a dishonest bluff.

Malaysia has zero leverage to press Australia on this matter since no one "forced" the Malaysian government to accept the Lynas plant to operate here.

On rare occasions in international relations, countries have agreed to accept the return of hazardous waste where illegal dumping was involved, but in this case the Malaysian government is in fact earnestly bulldozing through the Lynas plant in the face of public protests.

Justice Pao: Health Minister Liow Tiong Lai said that radioactive waste is not hazardous a few days ago at a press conference.

Why the change now to want to ship the waste back to Australia?

WSLAm: I just wonder where is the radioactive waste dump site. There is no safe place to dump the deadly waste anywhere in the world.

PM Najib Razak said not to worry as the plant is very safe . My foot!

Tanto AS: As I have said before, Lynas will be eventually walking away with a handsome reward. It's a matter of how much compensation they're going to get at end of the day at the rakyat's expense.

Versey: It is not just the radioactive waste which is hazardous, but taking into consideration Murphy's Law (If anything can go wrong, it will), the operations of the plant itself could potentially affects the people's health.

Cascara: The radioactive waste comes from the processing of Australian rare earths. It is not just 'other countries' radioactive waste.

If Western Australia is not prepared to accept the waste, isn't it only logical that our government should not grant this Australian company a licence to operate?

YF: Hello, Umno and BN, if it's no good for Australia (which has so much land), what makes you think it's good for Malaysia?

Stop fooling yourself and the rakyat please. Better still, why not use the Putra World Trade Centre (PWTC) where the Umno headquarters is located as the dumping ground for the waste as only Umno really believes that it is safe.

Indeed, there is no need to waste the rakyat's money to run their fancy electronic display board in PWTC. It can glow naturally.

Najib: Lynas waste to be store in isolated location

Justice Pao: Either Health Minister Liow plus three other ministers are lying or Najib is. We were told that Australia will not accept the waste, but the four ministers said that they will still try to get the Australians to take it back.

Now Najib is telling us the waste is not hazardous and will be dumped it somewhere in Malaysia. Maybe the only place that may accept this material will either be Pekan or Putrajaya.

If the waste is not dangerous, why won't the Australians take it?

CiViC: Najib, do you realise that your ministers not too long ago announced that the waste will be shipped back to Australia? And here you are telling something else.

And while you think and hope everyone thinks that you are doing everyone a favour, did you realise that you just slapped yourself in the face?

That you and your administration did not consult or surveyed the opinion of the locals before approving Lynas, and that whichever location you decide to move the waste to, it is still in Malaysia?

Dr Spin: Isn't it up to Lynas to propose a well-thought-out means of safe disposal? Why is Najib buying into this?

Road transportation raises many questions - how many trucks per hour, by which routes, will this pose greater danger to the people along the route, waterways and the ultimate storage site?

There is an answer to this type of waste - that is to process it close to the mine and return it to the mine site. If the waste poses no more hazard than the original ore, long-term storage can be regarded as neutral.

Mt Weld is far from any populated areas and worthy of consideration. Half-baked knee-jerk responses now only complicate the original siting mistake. Cancel the project and let Lynas fix their own mess.

Onyourtoes: Dear PM, why must we have this project? Why is this project so important to us? Did someone compromise his/her position so much so it is now impossible to stop this monster?

Now you want to move the waste. But what about contamination and accident during processing and transportation? Who is going to bear the responsibility? And where to dump the waste, tell us now.

Borg Kinaulu: I'm sorry, sir, but am I being unreasonable if I say I don't trust you?

 


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