MP calls for govt to come clean on nuclear power plans

Government To Ensure Lynas Complies With Set Rules And Conditions

PUTRAJAYA, Dec 11 (Bernama) -- Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Maximus Ongkili today stressed that the government would ensure that Lynas comply with the set rules and conditions before allowing its Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) in Gebeng, Pahang to begin operations.

He said this included removing all the residue generated by the plant from Malaysia including all products made from the residue.

Ongkili said Lynas had proposed to convert the waste into products which had a radioactivity amount of below 1 becquerel per gramme, which would make them ordinary products usable for industrial purposes.

"1 becquerel is what the quarries are producing, and the standard in Malaysia is even higher than the international standard, that is, 5 becquerel per gramme."

He said this after opening the Ninth Malaysia Plan Research, Development and Commercialisation Output Convention at the Putrajaya International Convention Centre.

Asked whether the products could then be marketed in Malaysia, Ongkili said it was up to Lynas.

"They have to find the market. But it is not classified as dangerous anymore and instead it falls under the Environment Quality Act (which is no longer under his jurisdiction)," he said.

Ongkili also reiterated that the safety issue had been the government's main concern since the beginning, that was why international standards had been made the guidelines and various processes had been gone through before the plant was granted a temporary operating license.

The waste issue came to light when there was a news reports quoting DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng as saying that Lynas managing director Mashal Ahmad had admitted that the company would not be exporting waste.

Lynas, however, denied that such a statement had been made, and said that the converted product called synthetic aggregate would be exported to other countries in accordance with international and local standards and regulations where it would be used as civil engineering material.

Lynas Must Comply With Condition To Remove Residue From Malaysia, Say Ministers

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 10 (Bernama) -- Lynas has been called to comply with the condition upon which it had been issued a Temporary Operating License (TOL), which is to remove from Malaysia all the residue generated by the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) including all products made from the residue.

The TOL was granted to the company with this specific condition, said four ministers directly responsible for the portfolio related to the Lynas project in a joint ministerial statement here Monday.

They were Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed, Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Datuk Seri Panglima Dr Maximus Johnity Ongkili, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Datuk Seri Douglas Unggah Embas and Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.

The Cabinet had also endorsed this condition, they said.

The statement was issued in response to recent inaccurate media reports regarding the removal of the residue generated by LAMP.

"The obligation imposed on Lynas in this matter is very clear. The Government will not compromise the health and safety of the rakyat and the environment in dealing with the issue of Lynas."

They also reiterated that if Lynas failed to comply with the condition, the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) had the power under section 22 of the Atomic Energy Licensing Act 1984 (Act 304) to suspend or revoke the TOL and order Lynas to immediately cease operation.

"As ministers responsible for portfolios directly associated with the Lynas project, we reiterate that public health and safety continue to be our utmost priority."

Anti-Lynas protesters say will occupy Dataran for the night

Thousands of Himpunan Hijau supporters descend upon Dataran Merdeka in Kuala Lumpur November 25, 2012. — Picture by Choo Choy May

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 25 ― Himpunan Hijau protesters vowed to stay overnight at Dataran Merdeka after arriving here following a 300km march from Kuantan to rally against the start-up of the Lynas rare earth plant in Pahang.

The police have, however, said they will investigate the Himpunan Hijau rally organisers under the Peaceful Assembly Act (PAA) 2012, for allegedly failing to give notice of their protest here against Lynas Corp’s refinery in Kuantan.

Several thousand protesters were gathered near the historic Dataran Merdeka here, some of whom marched all the way from Kuantan across 13 days.

Earlier, Dang Wangi police chief ACP Zainuddin Ahmad told the crowd that the leaders of the environmental protest had failed to inform police of the assembly, and referred to Section 9 (1) of the PAA.

He also said the organisers will be investigated under Section 9 (5) of the PAA.

Section 9 (1) states that the organiser of an assembly must give 10 days’ notice to the police, while Section 9 (5) specifies that those found to be in breach of the aforementioned clause will be liable for a fine of up to RM10,000.

Himpunan Hijau chairman Wong Tack, in his brief speech to the mostly green-shirted crowd, said that he will stay overnight within the Dataran Merdeka area.

Wong was later informed by Suhakam commissioner James Nayagam that Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) would allow Himpunan Hijau protesters to stay overnight, as long as tents were not set up.

The protestors also did not breach the barricades set up by DBKL directly outside Dataran Merdeka.

Mayor Datuk Ahmad Phesal Talib was previously reported as saying that City Hall — which administrates Dataran Merdeka — had issued a notice warning the public against rallying at the square, which is temporarily closed to enable upgrading works to be carried out.

The core group comprising hundreds of Himpunan Hijau protestors is expected to stay overnight at Dataran Merdeka, after the thousands that joined them dispersed peacefully this evening.

On April 28, the historic square saw violent clashes between the police and participants of the Bersih rally for electoral reform ― an event that also led to the government bringing legal action under the PAA 2012 against the organisers and opposition leaders.

The rally organisers were sued for damage to property amounting to RM122,000 under Section 6(2)(g) PAA, while three opposition leaders were charged with participating in a street protest, which is prohibited under Section 4(2)(c) of the same law.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said when tabling the PAA in Parliament last year that it would be “revolutionary” and allow Malaysians to participate in public gatherings “in accordance with international norms”.

Unprecedented public anger against the Lynas plant in Kuantan has been fuelling Malaysia’s green movement that could affect voter sentiment ahead of key national polls due soon.

Himpunan Hijau is among several grassroots movements that have sprouted in the last few years that have gained traction in the run-up to the 13th general election.

The group has held several rallies in Pahang — the home state of Najib — and here, to pressure the prime minister to stop Australian miner Lynas Corp from firing up its RM2.5 billion refinery in Gebeng.

The Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) is said to be the world’s biggest rare earth plant outside of China.

About 100 containers of rare earth concentrate arrived in Kuantan this week and Lynas has said it is ready to fire up its kiln.

Lynas has been ready to begin operations since early May but faced delays due to environmental and safety disputes, which are pending in court.

Activists and Kuantan residents have challenged the government’s decision to award Lynas a temporary operating licence (TOL), which is scheduled to be heard on November 30.

They recently failed to get the court to further suspend Lynas’s TOL in their bid to permanently block the plant from operating.

Huge amounts of superheated sulphuric acid are required to separate the rare earth elements from impurities found in the ore.

The Sydney-based company has repeatedly said its plant is safe and is not comparable to a rare earth plant in Bukit Merah, Perak by a unit of Mitsubishi Chemicals in 1992, which has been blamed for causing birth defects and a high rate of leukaemia cases among workers and residents nearby.

Tweets on 20,000 patriotic Malaysians at Dataran Merdeka protesting against Lynas

Tweets by Lim Kit Siang today

From Himpunan Kebangkitan Rakyat Sabah KK 2Himpunan Hijau Dataran Merdeka KL – quickening of awakening of Malaysians all races religions regions
3hrs ago

Final day of 13-day 300km trek from Kuantan to Kuala Lumpur to protest against Lynas rare earth refinery in Gebeng Pahang culminates in 20,000-ppl massive demo
3hrs ago

Most humbling/inspiring sea of confident hopeful patriotic Malaysian faces particularly young generation prepared to stand up for clean/green country
3hrs ago

I told Wong Tack as I joined 20k patriotic Malaysians who loved/cared 4Msia in last lap of 300km Kuantan/KL trek @ Sogo KL, he has made history
3hrs ago

28 Greenwalkers who completed 300km anti-Lynas trek have made history as with massive support of 20k people today, they have sent a powerful messsage.
3hrs ago

The word has gone out 2country and world “era the government knows best” is really gone/past and Msians who want clean green safe future must be heard
2hrs ago

PM Najib should respond positively to Kuantan/KL trek by leading a Cabinet team to dialogue with anti-Lynas activists @ Dataran Merdeka 9 am tomorrow
2hrs ago

PR fully support anti-Lynas campaign. Among PR leaders @ DataranMerdeka include PKR Chmn Azizah PR MPs FongKuiLun TeresaKok WongHoLeng ChongChiengJen ErTeckHwa etc
2hours ago

20,000 join green march against Lynas – by Lee Long Hui (Mkini) http://goo.gl/RBYzp
2 hours ago

Malaysian Rare Earth Plant Approved

Lynas: Entrance now open?

(Asia Sentinel) Temporary operating license a possible harbinger for November election
It appears that a long-stalled Lynas Corporation rare earths processing plant in Malaysia has finally been given the go-ahead by the country’s Atomic Energy Licensing Board, which yesterday issued a temporary operating license for the plant to begin operation.

The decision to grant the license would make Malaysia a major force in the production of rare earths, minerals used in a long list of high-tech products from computers to cars to cellphones to avionics and more. It is also being closely watched by investors and users of the materials, almost all of which currently are produced in China. Lynas is expected to supply up to 30 percent of world production when it reaches full operation.

The approval also appears to say as much about Malaysian politics and the confidence of the ruling Barisan Nasional to go ahead with an election as it does about the safety of the plant. Approval of the plant, in the eastern Malaysian state of Pahang*, has been pending for more than a year while it was shuffled from government department to department to department. Lynas received a temporary operating license on Feb. 1, only to have it appealed, then appealed a second time.

However, political observers say the three-party Barisan Nasional has been growing increasingly confident that it can win a majority of seats in the Dewan Rakyat, the country’s parliament, in elections that must be held by next April, and possibly take back at least one of the states it lost to the opposition in its 2008 electoral debacle. In that contest, bedeviled by allegations of corruption and cronyism, the Barisan lost its historical two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time since the country was founded.

Pakatan Rakyat leaders say they are equally confident. UMNO leaders concede that the opposition may well hold all of the country’s major cities.  One Kuala Lumpur-based businessman said the move to approve the plant could simply mean the Barisan Nasional has simply already written off Kuantan, the major city in Pahang state, and its environs.  As Asia Sentinel reported in an earlier story, Lynas has been growing increasingly concerned about bleeding cash into Malaysia without any revenue return.

“Receiving this license from the AELB is a significant milestone for Lynas,” said Lynas Executive Chairman Nicholas Curtis in a prepared release. “The TOL provides additional validation of the safety of Lynas' operations in Malaysia and supports the previous assessment by the world’s pre-eminent radiation safety authority, the International Atomic Energy Agency, that the [plant] is safe and fully compliant with international standards.”

The Australia-based Lynas operation has become a political football that has been kicked around for months between the opposition Pakatan Rakyat coalition and the government, with thousands of opponents turning up at rallies across the country. It has become a major test of Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s attempts to woo international investment to the country.

Two protest groups have been given leave to challenge the decision by the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry to allow the plant to go ahead. They told local media they would seek yet another injunction to stall the plant. However, Lynas officials were jubilant in Sydney and Perth in Western Australia, where a mountain of unprocessed ore has been building for months at the company’s Mount Weld mining facility. Although no one would comment for the record, given the touchy political situation in Malaysia, they are looking forward to the plant beginning operation despite a vow by protesters to block shipments of the ore.

The protesters say they fear that Malaysia’s inability to police its environmental laws could end up with the waste byproducts from the plant leaching into the water table or drifting into the atmosphere.

Lynas said it has poured nearly A$800 million and seven years into getting approvals for the plant. Some 350 Malaysians are already working at the facility, at an industrial state in Gebing in Kuantan state, Lynas told Asia Sentinel previously.

The issue has become so sensitive because a rare earth plant developed in the 1980s ended up contaminating air and groundwater at Bukit Merah near Ipoh. Several people were treated for various cancers because of the plant and later died. Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., which developed the plant, has spent an estimated US$100 million in the effort to clean up the environmental disaster.
*Corrected 7 Sept 2012. Story inadvertently said Kuantan was a state. We apologize for the error - Eds.

Plans for nuclear power plants?

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A group of NGOs has warned that the government is going ahead with plans to build two nuclear power plants. A final decision on the location of the plants will be made in 2014 – the point of no return.

Where will they be located? The NGOs say they have learned that seven potential sites have been identified:

• five coastal sites, one each in Kedah, Perak and Terengganu and two in Johor.
• two inland sites, near Tasik Temenggor, Perak, and Tasik Kenyir, Terengganu.

Why are we thinking of nuclear plants when there is so much reserve capacity? Why not safer forms of renewable energy? Is it because nuclear power plant involve big money and mega contracts for the chosen concessionaire?
See the full NGO statement on the Aliran website.
Meanwhile, Energy Minister Peter Chin claims he is in the dark.
theSun reports:

On a claim that the government had identified seven potential locations for nuclear plants in the country, Chin said he had heard nothing of it.
“I have received no report on this, and I don’t know where this news comes from.
“There has, of course, been no progress into this because what progress could there be,” he said.

If that’s the case, the government must categorically state that it will not build nuclear power plants. But will it?

Malaysia and the Global Rare Earth Squabble

Lynas protesters

Opposition, Barisan tangle over rare earth plant as global confrontation looms
If all things were equal, Malaysia should be rubbing its figurative hands together in glee over a major confrontation that is beginning to play itself out between China and the west over China’s limitations on rare earth exports.

China warned the US, the European and Union Tuesday that they were risking a backlash over challenges at the World Trade Organization over China’s export restrictions on the 17 rare-earth minerals that are a critical ingredient for products ranging from the iPhone to intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Other nations have largely ceased production of the rare earth minerals because of the detrimental effect mining and processing them has had on the environment. China has belatedly caught up with western sentiment after realizing that substandard mining practices have resulted in environmental catastrophes and has cut back on production, driving prices through the roof.

That ought to leave Malaysia, where an Australian company is seeking to open what is described as the world’s biggest rare earths processing plant, in a commanding position. Lynas Malaysia last month received a temporary license to operate the facility, which has been under construction for the last year.

Lynas’s plan is to mine the minerals at Mount Weld, a site 100 km east of Freemantle, Australia, ship them to Malaysia and process them in the plant in Gebing, near the city of Kuantan in the state of Pahang. From there the extracted rare earth materials are to be shipped to Japan, Europe and the United States, which are all crying out for the materials in the wake of China’s action.

But the plan, backed by the government, has come under implacable resistance from Malaysia’s three-party Pakatan Rakyat opposition, which it regards as a potent campaign issue, whatever the merits. The attempt to stop the plant from opening has become one of the biggest issues between the Barisan Nasional, or ruling national coalition, and the opposition in an election that is expected to get underway soon, perhaps in May or June, according to insiders in the United Malays National Organization.

Because of the emotive nature of the environmental issues, and because the atmosphere is becoming heated over the election, it is guaranteed not to go away. Critics want the government to halt its construction and direct the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB) to reverse a decision to grant Lynas a temporary operating license for a two-year trial run. One rally in Kuantan, 50 km from the plant, saw a turnout of 15,000 protesters, called the largest and most diverse environmental protest in Malaysian history.

In addition to becoming a prime election issue, the plant is also crucial to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s aspirations to transform the country into a high-income and developed nation by 2020. Crucial to that plan is to drive up foreign direct investment, which has stagnated badly. Although inward FDI climbed to US$10.86 billion in 2011, with a particularly steep rise in investment in services, outward FDI in 2010 surged to $13.2 billion, according to the Asian Development Bank’s Asian Development Outlook 2011: South-South Economic Links. No figure for 2011 is yet available. Unfortunately, much of the FDI that has appeared is in Sarawak and Sabah, primarily in investment in extractive industries rather than industrialization or manufacturing. A public protest that would shut the plant would not be a welcome signal to other multinationals contemplating investment in the country.

The opposition to the plant has taken on wider characteristics in Malaysia’s often-fraught political atmosphere. For instance, it has become entangled with the country’s “Peaceful Assembly Bill,” passed by the Dewan Rakyat, or parliament last November. Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak held up the bill as one of several reforms of the country’s colonial era restrictions on the right of assembly and other issues.

However, the Malaysian Bar Council complained that the new law is actually more restrictive than the previous law because it prohibits street protests, the organization of assemblies by those under the age of 21 and the participation of youths below the age of 15, and the imposition of a flock of new restrictions on organizers.

Protesters have linked the two issues together, holding a series of marches and rallies across the country, including one in Penang across the country and well to the north in late February, in which violence flared as pro-government factions attacked anti-Lynas activists, throwing stones and other missiles and shouting abuse.

The protesters have been given an emotive issue in the form of a mid-1980s rare earth processing facility developed in 1985 by Mitsubishi Chemical at Bukit Merah n northern Perak state near the city of Ipoh that turned into an environmental disaster. The facility was closed in 1992 amid allegations that it was causing widespread groundwater and other environmental contamination and was responsible for deaths from leukemia as well as birth defects in children living nearby.

The Bukit Merah site, 20 years later, remains one of Asia’s largest radioactive waste cleanup sites despite the fact that Mitsubishi has owned up to the pollution and poured an estimated US$100 million into the cleanup.

Pictures purportedly of dying individuals and deformed babies have been given wide circulation both on the Internet and by other means throughout the country.

Lynas has so far met stringent requirements both on the part of the government and the International Atomic Energy Agency although protesters say the company still doesn’t have a credible waste and water management plan and that radioactive materials could leach into both the groundwater, as they did at Bukit Merah, as well as into the South China Sea.

Last week Malaysia’s International Trade and Industry Minister Mustapa Mohamed, in a joint statement with Pahang Chief Minister Adnan Yaakob in Kuantan, said the government has “ordered Lynas to guarantee and plan the provision of a permanent waste disposal facility far from human population as recommended by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Failing that, Lynas has already expressed willingness to take the residue out of Malaysia."

Lynas said the most radioactive element, thorium, in its raw state from Mount Weld, is 50 times lower than that in Bukit Merah. Lynas also said waste products with low levels of thorium could be converted into safe byproducts such as cement aggregate for road construction.

"In practical terms, at these levels, exposure to radiation is less than taking a flight on a commercial airline or using a mobile phone," the company said in a statement. It also said it was prepared to place a bond with the government to ensure safe management of any remaining residue once the plant stops operations, but didn't give details.

In the meantime, does Malaysia risk missing the boat? The Wall Street Journal/Asia Wednesday quoted an analyst from Technology Metals Research as saying more than 419 rare-earth projects have got underway in 26 countries as the price has skyrocketed and the controversy has mushroomed.

'BN supporters roughed us up at Najib function'

Kajang municipal councillor Lee Kee Hiong and several others claimed that they were assaulted outside SRJK (C) Bandar Sungai Long, Selangor, minutes before Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's arrival there for the school's groundbreaking ceremony today.

Lee, a DAP leader, said she went there with an entourage of some 20 former and current municipal councillors and residents, wearing green shirts, but were stopped by a man in a black shirt after security checks were made by police at the scene.
At the time, somebody there shouted to her group, “Boss said you may not enter,” to which a member of Lee's group said she responded that they were only there for the food.
They were then charged at by about 30 to 40 people, who she claimed were BN supporters, who surrounded and roughed up four in her group, pinning them to the ground.

Lee said police at the scene tried to break up the fight, but were "powerless to stop the large group" of attackers.

"Since (entering politics in) 1993, this is the first time I felt protected by the police," Lee told Malaysiakini when contacted after the incident.

She feared that the situation could have been a lot worse had the police not stepped in.
Lee (in green T-shirt) said that when the thugs she described as "BN supporters" started their attack, Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Noh Omar appeared and shouted, "Why are you here to cause trouble?"

One in her group replied, “We received a brochure. It says, 'all are invited.' We just want to eat, why not?"

Five bruised

An individual, who Lee alleged was an aide of Noh's, pushed her, causing her to lose her balance and injuring herself in the process.

Police eventually escorted Lee and her group, some of whom suffered bruises from the attack, out of the venue.
One member of the group, Lee said, lost a pair of spectacles while another lost a shoe in the fracas, but both of these were later recovered.

She said the five only suffered bruises, but the group was in a state of shock.

"They will undergo a medical examination and a press conference on the matter will be held tomorrow," she added.
Lee added they wore green shirts simply to show their support for Himpunan Hijau 2.0.

"However, we didn't plan to do anything at the ceremony. We just wanted to eat and then leave," she said.

Lee further explained that they received a brochure at their house that said all were invited to attended the ground-breaking ceremony.

Malaysiakini tried to contact Noh tonight but failed to reach him.

Speaking at the function later, Najib announced that two toll booths along the Grand Saga Highway would be taken off, effectively halving the charges for commuting in both directions.

Beginning midnight tonight, the Batu 9 toll booth on the Kuala Lumpur-bound route and the Batu 11 toll booth on the Kajang-bound route would cease operations, he said.

Najib also handed over a RM4.5 million cheque to the school for the construction of 36 classrooms, which will accommodate 1,500 pupils.
He also said that the 5.9-acre piece of land that the school would be built on, was worth RM20 million.

What kind of development do we want for Penang?

Something to reflect on: what kind of development do we really want for Penang? Surely we need a balanced, sustainable model that also preserves our social and cultural heritage.
MPPP councillor Dr Lim Mah Hui made the following address at a full council meeting of the MPPP on 24 February 2012.

In the past 12 months, we have painfully witnessed the demolition of several historical buildings, some illegally. The latest victim is a mansion at 177 Jalan Macalister, opposite Loh Guan Lye Specialist Centre.
First, I would like to request the Council to provide data on all the historically, architecturally and/or culturally significant buildings that have been demolished last year and this year, or for which demolition was approved since 2008.
Let me mention a few of these buildings that were torn down. The beautiful mansion of Khaw Bian Cheng (son of Khaw Sim Bee) at Pykett Avenue, two historical bungalows on Burma Lane, one of them once occupied by a former prime minister of Thailand, Phraya Manopakorn Nititada (1884-1948), and two bungalows along Brooks Road.
Khaw Bian Cheng’s mansion was torn down without permit.
In the case of the Burma Lane and Brooks Road residences, two of three buildings in each location were torn down and only one building in each location was left standing. This is not preservation. This is architectural and historical mutilation. It is like cutting of one limb and preserving the other limb.
Prime Minister Phraya Mano sought refuge in Penang island when the military launched a coup in Thailand in 1932. He lived in Penang for several years and passed away here 1948. Mano Road in Pulau Tikus is named after him. In many ways, his history is similar to that of Dr Sun Yet Sun, who also took refuge in Penang during his struggle for Chinese independence. We are fortunate to maintain the heritage and history of Dr Sun in terms of a museum and the house where he spoke and launched his fund raising campaign. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for celebrating the history of Prime Minister Phraya Mano in Penang. The houses in which he once stayed have been demolished and an important part of the history of the Thai Malaysians in Penang has been destroyed in the pursuit of profit but under the rationale of “development”.
The present attitude is that only houses in the heritage zone or those that are designated heritage are protected. We need to take a more holistic view of heritage. One reason Penang was awarded the world heritage status is because of the large stock of pre-war houses in the island. It is myopic to only preserve the buildings in the core heritage zone and wantonly destroy important buildings in the buffer zones and other parts of the city. Tourists come to Penang to experience the whole city, not just the heritage zone.
Many Japanese and European visitors have commented to me their disappointment at the demolition of beautiful buildings. The building of 30-storey apartments surrounding a heritage building is not preservation; it is suffocation of heritage sites.
It is convenient to justify what is happening in the name of development. As I said last year, we must be more thoughtful. We must ask the following questions:
What kind of development do we want?
Is it development that destroys our heritage and culture?
Is it sustainable development?
Is it green development or development that aggravates climate change?
Who benefits most from this development?
Who loses out in this process?
Is it development for the top 1 per cent or development for the 99 per cent?
Development must be located within a vision. What is the vision for Penang’s development? Perhaps the best way to concretise this vision is to ask ourselves, what is the “model” city that best approximates our vision? I am not suggesting we copy blindly another city. But what I am suggesting is we learn from and choose what are the best characteristics to suit our own situation.
I have heard from some people and policy makers they would like Penang to model itself after Singapore and Hong Kong; both are densely populated international financial centres in the world. Are they appropriate for Penang? Might it not be more appropriate to look at a combination of Kyoto, a heritage city, and Xiamen, a city with similar characteristics in size, geography (hills and sea), and services (education, high tech and former trading ports) as models.
Let me say something about Singapore. There is much that can be said for Singapore – it is a clean, safe and a well-planned city with a good public transportation system. These are some of the positive lessons we can draw from it.
But we can also learn some negative lessons from it, of which I mention two. First, is Singapore, in the early days of development, demolished many of its traditional houses and buildings (not necessarily heritage). They have since learned it was a mistake and are now taking pains to preserve them. We should not repeat the same mistake.
Second, in their quest to make Singapore an international city, the government has swung to the extreme so that many of its local citizens are left behind in this “development” process. Despite Singapore having the best public housing schemes in the world, many of its young population feel they cannot afford housing or find good jobs. The dissatisfaction is so great that it cost the PAP government many seats in Parliament. This could also happen to Penang if more and more middle and lower class citizens feel they are left behind in this frenzy of property development.
Finally, allow me to suggest that for the moment, we should impose a moratorium on granting approval for demolition of all buildings in the island that were built before 1962 (more than 50 years old) and have architectural value. The present list of protected buildings should be immediately made available, and a technical committee made up of qualified professionals, civil society and input from other relevant bodies be established to study this matter immediately

Tolak pemimpin yang sokong Lynas

Polis: Himpunan Hijau cuma tarik 3,000 orang

Ketua Pembangkang, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim dan beberapa pemimpin lain hadir di perhimpunan itu.

KUANTAN: Himpunan Hijau 2.0 yang berlangsung di padang MPK 4 di sini hari ini gagal menarik kehadiran 20,000 orang seperti disasarkan apabila hanya kira-kira 3,000 orang hadir pada perhimpunan bagi membantah operasi kilang nadir bumi Lynas.

Walaupun tiada kejadian tidak diingini berlaku pada perhimpunan itu namun polis kesal kerana terdapat kalangan mereka di bawah umur 15 tahun menyertai perhimpunan itu, kata Ketua Polis Daerah Kuantan ACP Mohd Jasmani Yusof.

Beliau berkata polis kesal dengan pihak penganjur yang tidak mematuhi sepenuhnya syarat yang telah dipersetujui bersama bagi mengadakan perhimpunan itu sebelum ini.

Kira-kira 3,000 orang hadir ke perhimpunan itu termasuk Ketua Pembangkang Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim serta beberapa pemimpin parti politik pembangkang, katanya kepada pemberita di sini, hari ini.

Mohd Jasmani berkata, pihak polis memberi kerjasama sepenuhnya termasuk tidak mengadakan sekatan jalan dan malah memberikan penunjuk arah ke padang MPK 4 kepada orang luar yang datang ke perhimpunan itu.

Sementara itu, tinjauan Bernama mendapati beberapa pemimpin politik turut membuat ucapan berbaur politik pada perhimpunan itu sekalipun antara syarat perhimpunan itu ialah tidak dibenarkan berceramah perkara lain selain isu alam sekitar.

Syarikat Lynas Advanced Material Plants telah diberikan lesen untuk beroperasi sementara.

Thugs disrupt Penang anti-Lynas protest

A group of about 50 unruly pro-Umno thugs tried to disrupt the anti-Lynas solidarity gathering at Speakers’ Square in Penang this evening. 

Click to enlarge the photos and notice the writing on the caps

Chaotic scenes at Speakers' Square in Penang. Photograph: Nakesvari Shanmugam

The gathering began at 6.00pm but according to tweets the provocation by the thugs began at 6.20pm.
The mob reportedly hurled abuse at CM Lim Guan Eng when he addressed the gathering at around 6.30pm.
According to one eye-witness, the anti-Lynas group number at least 300 (Malaysiakini put the figure at 500) and the hecklers less than 20 (Malaysiakini, 50). “Earlier, 100 motorbikes paraded at Speakers Square with Umno flags.”
The hecklers were five metres away from the Guan Eng, said the Chief Minister’s special assistant Jeffrey Chew. “The CM was prevented from leaving. Fights broke out. Media people were beaten up by unruly thugs. Some went to the crowd to threaten them.”
But the crowd displayed courage. “What seems to be a simple event became a political showdown,” said Chew, who was part of the human shield around the CM.
“(The) thugs were shouting profanity and stupid remarks about 1Malaysia and asking the CM to go home,” he recalled, adding that they also hurled abuse at the crowd.
Malaysiakini, for its part, reported that two journalists were struck with crash helmets.

The anti-Lynas crowd in Penang. Photograph: Mat Pijan

Uniformed police reportedly moved in at 7.15pm and ordered the gathering to disperse. An activist ended the event by leading the crowd with Negara Ku.
Over in Bukit Merah, some 2000 gathered for a solidarity gathering this morning, reports Dr T Jayabalan.
 

Lynas: Australian Opposition to raise issue

The Australian Opposition will be raising the issue of Lynas’ rare earth refinery in Pahang with the Australian government, which is “ultimately responsible for issuing the export licences required by the company”.
See letter from the Leader of the Opposition in Australia (click to enlarge):

Is Malaysia’s nuclear power programme really on hold?

Are Malaysia’s nuclear power plans on hold – or are they quietly proceeding behind the scenes according to a scheduled timeline that could see the first plant commissioned in 2021?

According to an NST report dated 18 October, Energy Minister Peter Chin was reported as saying the government has not yet made a ‘final decision’ on the proposal to build nuclear power plants in the country.

But what’s happening behind the scenes?

Take a look at the the INPRO Dialogue Forum, which “brings together nuclear technology users and technology holders from interested Member States to discuss issues related to sustainable nuclear energy development and deployment”.

The Director of the Nuclear Power Division of Malaysia, Mohamad Puad Haji Abu, made a presentation on the progress of the nuclear power programme in Malaysia. The presentation was published on the IAEA website page for the INPRO Dialogue Forum, which was held on 10-14 October 2011 in Austria.

Among the key challenges Puad identified: to “promote public acceptance”, and to “acquire approval for plant sites” and “obtain public support in the locality”.

According to the detailed timeline, the programme managers are now supposed to be identifying potential sites and the final site selection is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2012.

Puad ended his presentation by stating, “In 2021 and 2023 Malaysia plan to have 1000 MW reactor respectively and probably by 2030, 2 SMR might be proposed to propel nation’s future energy demand.”

So how? Who is telling the truth?

The Sankei news portal reported that METI (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) of Japan had announced on 3 September 2010 that it had signed a a document with Malaysia for the cooperation on infrastructure development of the country’s nuclear power programme. The ministry will cooperate on human resource development, public relations and legislation development.

Of course, Japan turned out to be a public relations disaster with Fukushima in March this year; so that is why one of the key challenges is winning public acceptance of the nuclear power programme in Malaysia. Memories are short; and Bernama reported in August that that Japan had decided “to continue with its policy of exporting nuclear power generation technology after reviewing the policy” in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.

So is our nuclear power programme really on hold given what was revealed in the presentation in Austria?

Rare Earth Plant in Malaysia May be Closer to Opening

The Lynas Kuantan plant

High Chinese prices, electoral situation, western scarcity of rare metals become factors
(Asia Sentinel) An Australian-owned rare earths processing facility in Malaysia that is reported to be the world’s biggest outside China, which has been delayed by environmentalists and opposition political leaders, may well be gathering enough steam to open by the end of the year, say several sources in Kuala Lumpur.

The plant, to be located near the east coast city of Kuantan, was not expected to open until after snap national elections that some political observers said might be called late this year. It now looks like the elections will be delayed, however, until at least March of next year and possibly into 2013 when the current parliamentary term ends, partly because of infighting within the United Malays National Organization, partly because inflation is rising and because the economic situation in the developed countries could spell trouble for Malaysia’s exports.

Now, although there has been no definite word, the government may give the plant the go-ahead with or without waiting for the elections, the well-placed sources say. The Pahang state seat in which the plant lies is expected to go to the opposition in any case, and the feeling is that with the election that far away, much of the public anger over the opening will have dissipated by the time the polls roll around.

The facility is to be operated by Lynas Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., a subsidiary of the publicly traded Lynas Corp of Australia. It has been in limbo at a time when rare earths are skyrocketing in price. China, which supplies 95 percent of the world’s supply, has cracked down on illegal operators and is attempting to clean up its landscape. That has caused China to cut its exports by 35 percent or more.

The New York Times reported on Sept. 15 that the average price for fluorescent light bulbs in the United States has risen by 37 percent this year because of a shortage of elements such as Yttrium, Europium and Terbium, which are known as phosphors and are refined and processed to produce fluorescent and compact fluorescent bulbs. As rare earths are also used in a wide range of computer, cellphone and tablet products as well as wind turbines and electric motors, the price rises are wreaking financial damage on western companies forced to buy them at China’s price.

Thus the global need for increasingly scarce materials is putting added pressure on Malaysia to open the plant.

Karen Yap, a Kuala Lumpur-based spokeswoman for Lynas, said the Kuantan plant is on track to become operational before the end of the year. However, she said, Lynas will not comment on the political situation surrounding the plant. Environmentalists and Malaysia's opposition parties, particularly the Democratic Action Party, have been warning that the plant has the potential to create serious environmental and public health problems.

Rare earths mining and processing is difficult, expensive and rarely ecologically friendly. It produces enormous quantities of wastewater, requires vast amounts of energy, uses toxic materials in the refining process and can produce radioactive materials with half-lives of hundreds of years. The United States closed its rare earths mining operations in California’s Mojave Desert in the 1990s because of the environmental cost. They are now being reopened.

Malaysia is particularly sensitive to the issue. In the 1980s, Mitsubishi Chemical established a plant in an area called Bukit Merah west of Ipoh. For the last two decades, both Mitsubishi and Malaysia have paid the price in terms of deaths of workers from leukemia and environmental cleanup that so far has cost US$99.2 million and still hasn’t been completed.

That environmental disaster thus laid the foundations for the current opposition to the Kuantan plant – which will only process materials shipped from Australia, not mine them domestically. Lynas Malaysia says it plans to import rare earth ore from Mount Weld in Western Australia, said to be the richest rare earth deposit on the planet, truck the ore to Fremantle, send it by containership to Kuantan, then process it at a RM700 million (US$231.9 million) facility at the Gebing Industrial Estate nearby in Pahang state.

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and other government officials have continued to insist the plant won’t open until all safety and environmental concerns are met.

Despite professions of electoral strength by Barisan Nasional leaders, it is unsure at this point just how strong the government’s position is. The Malaysian Chinese Association, the second-biggest party in the national coalition, is in an absolute shambles because of political infighting and charges of corruption. Despite Najib’s attempts to woo the Chinese back, the widespread feeling in Kuala Lumpur is that the Barisan has lost the Chinese, the country’s second biggest ethnic group, to the opposition Democratic Action Party for the foreseeable future.

Also many urban ethnic Malays are said to have aligned themselves with Parti Keadilan Rakyat, the party headed by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim. A heavy-handed crackdown by authorities on a July rally and march demanding electoral reform is said to have alienated much of the urban public as well.

Thus, Barisan leaders are reluctant to court electoral trouble, especially on the eastern seaboard which is the home of the rural ethnic Malays who make up the backbone of UMNO support. Party leaders believe they must obtain the votes of most of the Malays for the coalition to survive.

As to the plant itself, commissioning is expected to be completed and production is supposed to begin by the end of the year, according to Ms Yap, of Ogilvy public Relations Worldwide, which functions at Lynas’s spokesman. Some regulatory approval is necessary for a pre-operational license. “However, there is a conclusive path following the release of the IAEA independent report and the Malaysian Government's clear announcement of implementing recommendations within the report,” according to a prepared release. “The required plans and an updated Radiation Impact Assessment (RIA) were submitted on 18 July 2011, and Lynas' submission of the Safety Case to the Atomic Energy Licensing board is imminent.”

A pre-operating license typically covers the first two to three years of operation. A full operational license isn’t granted until the plant has been fully operational for some time. Ogilvy called this standard engineering practice.

After Bhopal, Chernobyl and Fukushima, is Gebeng next?

Germany dumps nuclear energy

Germany will close all its nuclear power plants by 2022 while Scotland is aiming for 100 per cent of its energy needs from renewable sources. And Malaysia is still thinking about nuclear energy?
This is an excerpt of a report by Tony Paterson of the Independent:

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative-led coalition announced plans yesterday to close all Germany’s atomic power plants by 2022, in a move that put the seal on a dramatic policy U-turn in the immediate aftermath of Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The decision – which makes Germany the biggest industrial power to completely renounce atomic power as an energy source – will include a planned 10 per cent reduction in electricity consumption and a doubling of renewable energy sources to 35 per cent by 2020.
Related articles
Announcing the move Chancellor Merkel, who only nine months ago put forward plans to extend the use of nuclear power, declared: “Our energy system has to fundamentally change and can be fundamentally changed. We want electricity to be safer and, at the same time, reliable and economical.”

Meanwhile, the Scottish government is already committed to generating the equivalent of 100 per cent of Scotland’s own electricity needs from renewable sources by 2020. See this report from the Herald Sun.
And Malaysia is still thinking about nuclear energy instead of doing more research into renewable energy?

Protests as nuke panel meets reps

The New Straits Times 
by M. Hamzah Jamaludin and Fatin Farhana Haris

KUANTAN: A series of meetings between the nuclear expert panel and representatives from various parties at a hotel here proceeded smoothly yesterday despite demonstrations and a scuffle between supporters and opposers of the Lynas Corporation rare earth processing plant in Gebeng.

Members of the expert panel met representatives from five residents associations and Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers, apart from Kuantan MCA chief Datuk Ti Lian Ker and Kuantan member of parliament Fuziah Salleh, at 2.30pm.

The team is here at the invitation of the Malaysian government and they will investigate the health and safety aspects of the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) in Gebeng.

The panel consists of nine professionals of various disciplines.

Four of them are from Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) while the others are consultants from member countries.

Panel leader Dr Tero Varjoranta said they would review the radiation safety aspects at LAMP in relation to relevant international radiation safety standards and good practices.

"The team will provide an independent expert opinion to the Malaysian government," he said in a statement issued by the International Trade and Industry Ministry.

Varjoranta said the mission was technical in nature and their work would focus on gathering information and receiving submissions from interested parties and members of the public.

He also said that it was the standard practice of IAEA missions to obtain information from closed door sessions and not in a town hall-type of meeting.

The expert panel will also visit the controversial plant.

The construction of the plant has been suspended pending the review.

They will also hold similar sessions in Putrajaya and submit their findings and recommendations to the Malaysian government by the end of next month.

The RM700 million Australian project has raised public concern about radiation exposure and its effect on health, safety and the environment.

After meeting the panel, Ti told reporters that he was satisfied with the 30-minute session as he was able to raise the people's concerns.

"The panel members also explained to me that IAEA is a regulatory agency and not a decision-making body or a promoter of nuclear technology," said Ti who is also representing the residents of Kubang Buaya here.

Ti hoped that the people would wait for the panel's report and stop holding demonstrations as it could lead to violent outbursts.

Fuziah, however, said that she was not satisfied with the composition of the panel as they did not include experts from other fields including public health specialists.

"I hope the panel will make its recommendations based on conscience by putting the lives of 700,000 people first, before profits," said Fuziah.

Kuantan district police chief Assistant Commissioner of Police Jasmani Yusoff said there were no untoward incidents although more than 200 people had held two demonstrations at 8am and 1pm.

Nuclear Energy Roils Indian Politics

Jaitapur says NO to nukes

(Asia Sentinel) The fallout from Fukushima

Protests, political volatility and bloody clashes between the local populace, activists and police in India's Maharashtra state have once again revived the contentious debate about nuclear power safety versus cheap energy production in an emerging economy.

It also raises the question how a country like India, which needs nuclear energy to power its exponential growth, marry its seemingly contradictory requirement for cheap energy production with nuclear safety.

Jaitapur, a small city on the Arabian seacoast, is the projected site for the world's largest nuclear power project, a 9,900-MW, US$10-billion plant in the eco-sensitive geological Western Ghats Belt. Last December, the French multinational Areva Group was awarded the contract by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd to construct six European Pressurized Reactors, each of 1650 MW capacity, or four times the size of Fukushima. The project is expected to overtake the world's current largest, the 8,200 Kashiwazaki-Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Japan.

Work on Areva's reactors, to be operational in 2018, is to begin shortly. However, the project has fuelled concern among Jaitapur's local populace – mostly farmers growing paddy, mango and cashew – about a Fukushima-like catastrophe. Opponents have noted that the area is seismically very active and a record 95 earthquakes rocked it between 1985 and 2005. The seismic activity was minor, government officials counter, adding that the plant's location on a high cliff further cushions it against tsunamis.

Jaitapur's residents have opposed the nuclear project for the past three years. That opposition gathered momentum last week and exploded in the face of the Congress-led state government when a protesting fisherman was shot dead by the police.

The villagers' main concern is that the state government never really took them into confidence about the project and thus failed to win them over. This led to a groundswell of anger that the anti-nuclear lobby and Shiv Sena, a Hindu fundamentalist group, are capitalizing on, for political gain.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, a staunch advocate of nuclear power, nearly staked the survival of his government, the United Progressive Alliance-led coalition, in 2008 on a civil nuclear deal with the United States. That agreement, finally sealed last year, has enabled India to purchase nuclear technology from Western nations that previously would not sell to it because Delhi was not a signatory to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.

However, following the treaty, opposition parties led by the right-wing Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party, forced the UPA government to buck international practice and make nuclear plant suppliers liable for accident compensation claims as well. This, they deemed necessary, to prevent a repeat of the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 in India's central state of Madhya Pradesh, which ranks as of one of the world's worst industrial disasters. Critics say that despite the magnitude of the disaster, the Indian government at the time, led by late PM Rajiv Gandhi, let Union Carbide off the hook quite easily despite the latter's paltry monetary compensation to the gas victims. The lenience of the action against the Union Carbide officials led to an uproar in India.

Since the formalization of the India-US treaty, western companies – including Areva, the US's General Electric and state-owned Russian enterprises – have been vying for India's nuclear industry bandwagon, eager to snag contracts worth billions of dollars.

This competition among western companies, analysts say, is likely to intensify further as by 2030 India gets set to generate 40,000 MW of nuclear energy with modern nuclear technology to sustain its 9-10 percent growth.

Union Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has ruled out a reassessment of the planned Jaitapur facility although he said over the weekend that concerns raised by villagers' were "rationally justified" and the government must go-slow with the project.

The minister said that his ministry would, if required, reimpose certain conditions and safeguards on the Jaitapur project following a report by a ministry-appointed committee to look into safety issues at all coastal plants.

Even so, the phobia among the Jaitapur residents continues. They fear that the reactor will wreck their traditional livelihoods of fishing and farming. Already, many of the over 2,000 Jaitapur landowners have rejected payment for the land the government forcibly acquired for the plant as a form of protest.

Local farmers are worried that radioactive contamination might have an adverse impact on their produce, mainly the region's acclaimed Alphonso mangoes, which fetch about US$20 for a dozen in Mumbai's markets. Fishermen worry that the millions of gallons of hot water that will whoosh out of the proposed plant into the sea will render the coast uninhabitable for edible fish, ruining an industry that supports thousands of families.

Currently, India gets about 3 percent of its electricity from the 20 relatively small nuclear reactors in the country. But five big new reactors and 39 more modest ones are in the pipeline to help meet the country's gargantuan appetite for power as a fast-growing economy of a billion-plus people.

By 2050, the Indian government hopes to significantly augment the nuclear component in the country's energy profile. It says a quarter of the nation's electricity should come from nuclear reactors over the next four decades. And the Jaitapur project would be a giant step towards that ambitious goal.

According to Robinder Sachdev*, India's nominee for a Global Task Force set up by the World Energy Council (WEC) to assess the impact of Fukushima crisis on nuclear energy sector, one common worry emerging amongst most countries, including India, is the role played – and autonomy enjoyed – by each country's atomic regulatory bodies.

For India, Sachdev proposes that the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) be given greater autonomy and its capacity built upon to strengthen and infuse transparency in the country's nuclear dealings. "Also," he adds, "the AERB must stay at an arm's length from the power producer and policy planners at the Department of Atomic Energy."

A sharp focus on liability issues, according to the expert, would also help – since the operator and vendors would then have to clearly demarcate their responsibilities, and could then even act as a counter-check on each other.

Apart from this, what also needs to be addressed, say experts, is the human resource shortfall within the AERB. "The Board's current human resources capacity is woefully inadequate," Singh says. "India must invest in higher education, training schools and the certification for professionals in this industry to produce trained engineers and other experts to man the power plants."

As further plants are set up in India, especially with reactors from foreign vendors, this professionalism will force greater transparency upon dealings as the terms and conditions of the contracts will be negotiated in a more open manner, opine experts.

To prevent a repeat of more Jaitapur scenarios, Ramesh also advocates effective public outreach programs which demystify nuclear energy. "Right now," says an industry source, "an average Indian associates the word `reactor' with a nuclear bomb! So the government needs to work upon this and win over their confidence."

"However, Fukushima doesn't spell the funeral of atomic energy in India," the source says. "It has just put the spotlight on the industry's unsolved problems."

Correction made 27April 2011

Neeta Lal is a New Delhi-based senior journalist