KUALA LUMPUR: The current government has imposed more stringent conditions on Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd when compared to the previous administration, says Deputy Minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment, and Climate Change Isnaraissah Munirah Majilis (pix).
“The new terms were decided following the decision of the Cabinet based on the recommendations made by the Executive Committee on Operations Evaluation of the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant in its November 2018 report,“ she told the Dewan Rakyat yesterday in reply to a question by Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob (BN-Bera).
Ismail Sabri had questioned the decision of the Pakatan Harapan government to renew Lynas’ licence as he claimed this showed that the previous Barisan Nasional government did nothing wrong in allowing Lynas to operate in Malaysia.
While not denying Ismail Sabri’s claim, Isnaraissah said the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (LPTA) approved the renewal of Lynas’ operating licence for just six months under more stringent measures to ensure Lynas operations, especially in terms of waste management, are safe.
Ismail Sabri then asked the government to state why it allowed the operation of the Lynas plant in Kuantan and the impact on the health of the people as it continues its operations.
Isnaraissah said Lynas has produced 637,581 tonnes of water leached purification (WLP) radioactive residue as of Sept 24, 2019, up from 451,564 tonnes in December last year.
Meanwhile, non-radioactive scheduled waste disposal neutralisation underflow residue (NUF) stood at 1.08 million tonnes as of Sept 24 this year, down from 1.113 million tonnes in December last year,
