The Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) needs to be "stripped away" from the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti) to prevent conflicts of interest, said nuclear medicine specialist Dr Peter Karamboskos.

He said this is because the Mosti is responsible for promoting industry including the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (Lamp), whereas the AELB, which is under Mosti, is supposed to regulate it.

smsl seminar 241113 peter karamboskos "It is not too hard to realise who signs your paycheck. The problem is when you have deputy minister making comments such as that the Lynas plant is as safe as a soya sauce factory.

"I understand where he is coming from: From his perspective, he thinks it is safe. That's fine (but) what are the implications when the regulator hears that?

"Is he really going to be a fierce tiger of independence? It is difficult for him and it is difficult for anybody," he said at a seminar held by the NGO Save Malaysia Stop Lynas (SMSL) today.

In addition, he pointed out that Section 11 of Malaysia's Atomic Energy Licencing Act empowers the science minister to dictate AELB's policy directions.

Karamboskos is a public representative on the Radiation Health Committee of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (Arpansa), which is AELB's Australian counterpart.

However, he stressed that he was speaking in his personal capacity.

Importance of independence

He said that a similar situation took place in Japan, where its Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (Nisa) reports to the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry, which was promoting nuclear power.

An independent report to the Japanese parliament later found this lack of independence has fostered insufficient safety culture and hampered a quick response to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster in 2011, he said.

He stressed that both independence and transparency are important for a regulatory agency to be effective.

"It is not about whether your motives are good or bad, it is about the structure. The outcomes follow the structure, which governs the processes," he said.

In Australia, he said, Arpansa is placed under the Department of Health whereas the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (Ansto), which promotes the nuclear industry in placed under the Department of Resources, Energy and Tourism.

In addition, he said Arpansa publishes all documents and decisions on its website except for the rare instances where there are trade secrets involved.

Reading between the lines

In his presentation, Karamboskos provided a critique of Malaysia's nuclear regulatory structure based on the IAEA's 2011 report on Lynas, which he said was written in "diplomatic language" because the IAEA was visiting Malaysia on invitation and needs to be interpreted "between the lines".

In one paragraph of the report, IAEA said it would be "advantageous" for AELB to have a program to review the whether its regulations are up to international standards.

"Very politely speaking, it means that you are not updating your regulations the way you should be updating them. You are far behind the times," he quipped.

According to his interpretation, he said the IAEA had in effect slammed the AELB for lacking “sufficient resources, competence, and independence” to perform its job.

He added that Malaysia's regulations classifying radioactive waste is already obsolete, and Malaysia has no clear framework on how to dispose of radioactive waste.

Among other issues, he said Malaysian regulations does not even have a specific definition for what constitutes radioactive material, and activities involving naturally occurring radioactive materials is only mentioned in passing in a guideline and nowhere in regulatory documents.

Agreeing with him is environmental lawyer Theivanai Amarthalingam, who said the Atomic Energy Licensing Act is inadequate.

"It is inadequate to handle any form of rare earth processing plants, especially in relation to its regulation of radioactive waste disposal and storage, radiation leakage, or even health and safety damages caused by radioactive plants," she said.

"So there is a lot of problems with the Act itself, which is not even ready to handle places like Lynas," he said.