IAEA panel visits Lynas rare earth plant
The nine-member IAEA panel formed to review the establishment of the Lynas Advance Material Plant (Lamp) visited the site of the RM700 million rare earth plant at the Gebeng Industrial Zone today.
The nine-member IAEA panel formed to review the establishment of the Lynas Advance Material Plant visited the site of the RM700 million rare earth plant at the Gebeng Industrial Zone today.
Gebeng is located 25km north of Kuantan, next to the Kuantan port.
The experts arrived at the Lynas human resource training centre in Gebeng at 8.30am for a briefing by the Australian company before heading to the 40ha site of the plant.
They arrived at the main entrance at 11.40am, escorted by police officers, and left approximately at 1.20pm.
They later visited Balok, a residential area next to Gebeng, and returned to their hotel inTeluk Cempedak 20 minutes later.
Members of the media, who had been waiting outside the construction site since 9am, were barred from entering the area.
The reporters were also denied information about the schedule of the IAEA review panel members while in Kuantan.
A police officer told the press that personnel had been on duty since 6am, and that they too had not been informed about the schedule.
Today, there was no sign of the anti-Lynas 'Save Malaysia' team or the aggressive pro-Lynas group, which had caused a lot of trouble during the public consultations held at the hotel over the past two days.
Top energy experts
The expert team selected by the IAEA to undertake the review consists of nine persons, led by Tero Varjoranta of Finland.
Varjoranta is the director of the nuclear fuel cycle and waste technology division at the IAEA Department of Nuclear Energy.
The other external experts are Jan van der Steen (Netherlands), Leo M Lowe (Canada), PM Balagopala Pillai (India), Dennis Wymer (UK), and Ulric Schwela (Finland).
The internal (IAEA) experts comprise Magnus Vesterlind (Sweden), Horst Monken Fernandes (Brazil) and Hanna Kajander (Finland), while Hiroko Raticliffe is serving as administrative assistant.
The recognised experts have specialised knowledge of issues relating to radiation protection, safety assessment, waste management, transportation, and decommissioning and remedial actions.
