Still radioactive ARE deters acceptance of LYNAS & future nuclear powerplants

Malaysiakini - Urgent motion filed on high radiation in Bukit Merah

SMSL, which is battling the Lynas Advance Materials Plant operations in Gebeng, Kuantan, has claimed that radiation at the Mitsubishi Chemical’s ARE plant, which was shut down 18 years ago, is still at a hazardous level.

SMSL chairperson Tan Bun Teet said the radiation reading near the plant was around 0.19 microsievert per hour while the reading near the dump site stood at about 0.2 microsievert per hour.

Both readings, if calculated to a year’s worth of radiation, are beyond the safe level of 1 milisievert per year as advised by AELB.


Thus AELB, in vouching recently that the ARE site would be safe enough to be converted into a public park once the Bukit Kledang waste disposal site is completely sealed by next year, has either been incompetent in its assessment or ..... untruthful. Malaysians have become so disenchanted with the highly politicised and, in many cases, corrupt Malaysian public service and institutions that most are likely to believe in the latter, that is, 'untruthful'.

Sweetie Fong Po Kuan (DAP-Batu Gajah) has been so shocked or so incensed, or both, by the frightening levels of radioactivity at the abandoned Asian Rare Earth (ARE) plant in Bukit Merah and its permanent waste dump site at Bukit Kledang, Ipoh, that she has filed an emergency motion in Parliament to debate SMSL’s claims.

This scarey turn of event is typical of Malaysia where government bureaucracy supposedly responsible for our safety, security and service have, with some small exceptions, either been incompetent or untruthful when they presented questionable reports which only favoured the requirements of powerful politicians and their business-industry cronies. That's the current public attitude regarding Lynas where very few people believe the government's assurance that it's eight bells and all's swell.


Compounding our Boleh untrustworthy bureacracy has been our (Malaysian) notoriety for poor maintenance practice, where we would build the most, best, greatest, biggest, largest, tallest, deepest whatever, but very seldom maintain the building or structure once it's construction has been completed. Maybe we Malaysians believe God's archangels would maintain the structure for us.

It sure as hell doesn’t help when maintenance money, whatever little of it, is siphoned off by corrupt officials, as was exposed by (then) Deputy Higher Education Minister Ong Tee Keat in September 2006, when Education Ministry officials embezzled humongous chunks (90%) of funds allocated for refurbishing vernacular schools in Johore.

The veracity of Ong’s accusations was confirmed by Lim Kit Siang in Parliament when he told (then) Works Minister Samy Vellu that a JKR official had admitted to Ong's allegation. The official said that the refurbishment works carried out on SJKC Kung Yu in Johor cost only about RM3,000 when the allocation was RM30,000.


Thus, Ong Tee Keat earned the wrath and eternal hatred of UMNO when he publicly exposed those corrupt officers. But instead of thanking Ong for his public service duty, Hishamuddin, he with the 50-foot Panca Warisan keris, demanded Ong apologise for not remaining within his Higher Education domain but intruding into Hisham's fiefdom. The cabinet led by cousin (then DPM) Najib supported Hisham in his demand but Ong refused to apologize, finally leading his boss Higher Education Minister Mustapa Mohamed to do so on his behalf to save everyone’s face, especially Najib’s and Hishamuddin’s.

For more of Najib’s ‘form rather than substance’ read my post Corruption 'Fact' for DPM Najib & Hishamuddin. Till today I do not know whether those corrupt officers have been duly charged? But I won’t hold my breath waiting.

Back to Bukit Merah – thus, with such Malaysian (lack of) work ethics and its highly BTN-ized racial politics and governance, where corrupt, incompetent or even wilful officials would get away with virtually blue murder, it’s small wonder safety procedures would very seldom be complied with, more so if these were complex and laborious to conduct, or 'savings' (nudge nudge wink wink) could be derived by skimming on them.

In the private sector, it’s not unknown that companies had not been very kosher as well, cutting corners to obtain the best bottomline, no matter how well padded their rewards have already been guaranteed. Just sheer bloody greed and assured knowledge that all's kowtim-able if caught.

I was informed that there were rumours of trucks carting away the contaminated waste from ARE but irresponsibly and callously dumping them in unauthorized nooks and corners to save time and travel (cost). Part of the problem had been the ignorance of the truck drivers who themselves probably weren’t aware of the radioactive contents they were trucking away. I just wonder how many of them and their loaders had been tested for cancer since?


I have been consistently one of those who believe that at some stage, sooner rather than later, Malaysia seriously needs to examine the use of nuclear energy instead of just conventional fossil fuel for its electrical needs, hence I'm very much pro use of nuclear energy, but such reminders of the irresponsible management of ARE (by both industry and the Malaysian govenrment) can only serve to dampen my anti-Luddite proclivity.