Himpunan Hijau has expressed worry that the government has stopped regulating the operations of the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (Lamp) closely after conflicting reports were recently made about the company’s plan for a permanent disposal facility (PDF).

NONE Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) director-general Raja Abdul Aziz Raja Adnan had said last week that Lynas has not identified a PDF site and does not need to, while Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Ewon Ebin had told Parliament in early July that a PDF plan had been given to the government.

The PDF was earlier said to be a condition of the temporary operating licence (TOL) issued to the rare earths producer about a year ago.

NONE "Who is lying? Raja Aziz or Ewon?

"How can we depend on people with such character to manage such a high-risk industry?

"The ministry and all its related agencies are now in a total non-functioning state," Wong Tack ( left ), chairperson of Himpunan Hijau was quoted as saying in a press statement.

Australian miner Lynas has said that it was a “responsible” rare earths producer and that it can process its own waste or export it out of the country, therefore there's no urgent need for a PDF.

Himpunan Hijau, however, still begged to differ.

Up until yesterday, members of Himpunan Hijau remained at Dataran Merdeka to collect one million signatures in a campaign kicked off last month.

"That is why the 'Bury Lynas with 1,000,000 signatures' campaign is very important. We cannot depend on this regime to safeguard the well-being of the people any more," Wong said.