Najib says measures are in place to prevent environmental damage from low-level radioactive waste.
Datuk Seri Najib Razak said today that safeguards are in place at the new rare-earth refining plant in Kuantan that will prevent a repeat of the radioactive waste problem involving a now-shuttered plant near Ipoh.
The prime minister’s remarks come on the heels of a New York Times report that Malaysia is gambling on the new Australian-owned rare-earth processing plant in Kuantan to produce metals that could shatter China’s hold on the market, nearly two decades after protests forced Mitsubishi Chemicals to close a rare earth plant near Ipoh due to environmental damage which it is still trying to clean up today.
“There are measures in place,” said Najib when asked what safeguards have been taken. “But the details I have to check on that.”
The New York Times (NYT) report said today Australian mining company Lynas’s refinery in Kuantan could break China’s chokehold on rare earth metals that are crucial to high technology products such as Apple’s iPhone, the Toyota Prius and Boeing’s smart bombs, said the newspaper.
“If rare earth prices stay at current lofty levels, the refinery will generate USD1.7 billion (RM5 billion) a year in exports starting late next year, equal to nearly one per cent of the entire Malaysian economy,” the newspaper said.
“But as Malaysia learned the hard way a few decades ago, refining rare earth ore usually leaves thousands of tons of low-level radioactive waste behind,” it added, referring to a plant in Bukit Merah.
The Bukit Merah Asian Rare Earth plant near Ipoh was also reported by the New York Times to be still quietly undergoing a USD100 (RM300 million) million cleanup exercise despite shutting down in 1992.
The New York paper also reported that as many as 2,500 workers are rushing to complete the USD230 million (RM690 million) plant in Gebeng, near Kuantan, that will refine slightly radioactive ore from Australia.
