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- An Australian Co., Lynas, is building a Rare Earth
Element, REE, refinery in Malaysia. However, that refinery can
never be deemed as safe, because accidents happen. It is not only the thorium
232 radioactive alpha particles, those from the ores and the waste, that
could accidentally be released into the the air as dust, (lung
cancer), and into the water, (liver cancers etc.), but there is the possiblility
of accidental release, (OR release during normal ops.), of
highly toxic gases that are by-products of REE refining, such as fluorine,
radon, (radio-active), and sulphur dioxide. There will also be millions
of gallons of waste water loaded with toxic cadmium and other carcinogenic,
DNA damaging, heavy metals.
- The Co. plans to ship the radioactive ores 1000s of kilometers
from Western Australia, and then leave the still radioactive waste in Malaysia,
forthe pleasure of the locals.
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- As an `accidental`spill or leak is not considered by
the IAEA, their main concern being radiation levels during normal ops.
and at normal storage, the risk lies with the Malaysia Govt. to accept
or reject the refinery. Considering Malaysia already had a REE
disaster, and is still cleaning up ten years after shut-down, makes one
wonder why one party is hell-bent on toxifying their country for
ever. Thorium has a 14 billion years life, cadmium lasts for-ever.
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- The United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency,
IAEA, experts who are evaluating the refinery pre-opening, are the
same experts who declared Fukushima safe, even without protective
walls around the reactor cooling pumps, in a tsunami zone! These pumps
were destroyed by the tsunami. Other Japanese Nuke plants had voluntarily
built massive sea walls for these pumps, and that saved their plants!
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- These same experts told Thailand that Nuke Plants
are 100% safe, just before Fukushima blew. How could they make that claim,
after the Chernobyl and many other accidents? Because accidents are
not in their reckonings! They dont even control well, for they allowed
Tokyo Electric to police themselves!
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- Nuke plants at Fukushima, Chernobyl, Ukraine, 3 Mile
Island, USA, Sellafield UK, in Germany, France all had
`accidental` spills, though all were deemed `safe` by the IAEA.
- China's rare earth industry each year produces more than
five times the amount of waste gas, (including deadly fluorine, radio-active
radon, and sulfur dioxide), than the total flared annually by all
miners and oil refiners in the U.S. Alongside that 13 billion cubic meters
of gas comes 25 million tons of waste water laced with cancer-causing heavy
metals such as cadmium. The Malaysians dont even know about this,
yet.
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- In the United States, very old laws still allow rare
earth businesses to meet much less stringent standards for radioactivity
in products and waste than other industries, precisely because it is SO
HARD to really handle these materials cleanly!!
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- The New York Times reported last October, that the tailings
pond at Baotou, China is leaking an underground bloom of thorium that is
moving toward the Yellow River at 300 meters per year; the river is 7 kilometers
away. The Chinese have since confirmed this.
- The Lynas chairman Nicholas Curtis claims that they have
permission from the government to store the waste onsite forever. On the
other hand, AELB's (Atomic Energy Licensing Board) director general Raja
Datuk Abdul Aziz Raja refutes that claim in saying that the plant can only
store waste temporarily. If the onsite storage is temporary, where will
the waste be shipped to next? It will definitely not be bound for its place
of origin Australia, after Western Australian minister for mines and petroleum,
fisheries and electoral affairs Norman Moore flatly rejected calls to take
back Lynas' radioactive waste.
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- Moreover, Raja Aziz claims that Lynas' waste is safe
enough to be scattered everywhere if Lynas can keep the thorium level in
its waste to 1,600 parts per million. Then again, if the waste is safe,
why is it necessary for Lynas to build storage pools for it, and why does
Raja Aziz refuse permission for Lynas to store the waste permanently? The
most plausible explanation is that neither Lynas nor AELB are confident
that the 'safe' thorium level can be met. If that is the case, the authorities
have betrayed the people of the State of Kuantan by exposing them to unknown
and unnecessary health risks.
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- So far, Lynas has refused to comment as to whether there
is uranium, as suspected, in the REE ores they plan to also import from
Malawi, Central East Africa.
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- The Malaysian Med. Assn. is up in arms, as this project
was sneaked in under the radar without consultations, without environment
studies etc. especially so as a previous REE refinery in the same State
is still cleaning- up, and had leukaemia clusters reported.
- One must also keep in mind, that if an accidental
spill or leak should occur, it is in the best interest of a plant/refinery
operator, and a Govt. (that would have given licence for such), to keep quiet. When
clusters of leukaemia, lung and liver cancers, and the crippling effects
of cadmium occur, they deny any association. The alpha particles radiation
from thorium are not detectable even with a Geiger counter, as the particles
do not pass into the sensor.
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- Radioactive leaks worldwide have been hushed up or lied
about by plant owners, IAEA and Govts. After Chernobyl, the UN said
that a few thousand died, but medics say over 1 million have died. A reactor
at Fukushima melted down a few days after the tsunami, but it took
the IAEA 2 months to announce it, and that only after alternative news
sites had exposed the accident.
- One also wonders what brave Malaysians would go to work
in an industrial estate with a nearby toxic bomb, or live in the city nearby.
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- Malaysia is NOT going to save the non-Chinese world with
locally refined REE. (China now controls 95% of the REE market).
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- A massive REE refinery, from the old Soviet era is about
to restart in Kyrgystan. The operator is a Canadian miner, Stans Energy
Corp. Stans has just this week sealed the final deals and now owns 100%
of the refinery, the railhead, the massive NEARBY mine, plus has licence
on another large nearby REE find.
- This refinery was moth-balled, and is 97% serviceable.
It sits 150 kilometres from civilization, with only support staff in the
vicinity, so no fear there for the Kyrgys public in case of an accident. It
supplied 80% of the Soviet Unions REE, essential for their 1000s of nukes,
smart weapons etc.
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- Thomas Turk
- Phuket Thailand
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