SAVE MALAYSIA! STOP LYNAS!

Written By Ray Chong. I am just a Malaysian international student studying in US, however Lynas had built the largest rare earth refinery facility in Kuantan, Pahang has gravely endangered the lives of Malaysians. In the process of rare earth refinery, certain radioactive elements such as Uranium and Thorium will be released. Once the facility starts to operate, 300,000 tons of radioactive waste will be produced every year! Those radioactive elements will not only exist in solid and fluid waste, the fallout will contaminate the dust particles in the atmostsphere and become air-bound. Lynas' solution to the waste is to "recycle" them. Current technology is insolvent to diminish radioactive materials, would it be safe for the consumers to purchase contamined products? The experts believe that Lynas is trying to stockpile the waste in concrete storage and bury them underground. However, there is a report that questions the safeness of the storage. Kuantuan is located by the South China Sea, in the event of radioactive material leakage, underground water, rivers and the sea will be affected. Thus, lead to the contamination of drinking water, crops, sea and animal product. The radioactive fallout can be spreaded up to several hundred square kilometers. By now, you should have realise that this is an issue that implicates all Malaysians. When humans are exposed to radioactive materials, the most common signs are: nauseous, dizziness, peeling of the skin and drop of white blood cell count. Severe exposure will lead to death usually within 2 days up to 2 weeks, and it is incurable. Radioactive material can also impair our DNA, causes the birth of abnormal infants and cancers. Lynas reassured that the radioactive material in their rare earth mineral ores is within the safe level. Neither am I a chemist nor science student, but in my astronomy class, we learned about the concept of "half-life". Half life is the period of time it takes for the amount of a substance undergoing decay to decrease by half. Uranium has a half-life of 44.7 billion years and Thorium has a half-life of 140 billion years! Our earth is 45.5 billion years old, that's only 1/3 of time has passed to for Thorium to reach its half-life. The half-life of Thorium is even longer than the life of the sun, how is it possible for it to be safe? Lynas' explanation for setting up refinery in Msia: The lack of water and sources of sulphuric acid. It is illogical for them to move ores all the way from Mt. Weld to Kuantan just to find those basic industrial materials. They also claimed that the Msia will benefit from economic aspect of the refinery and Lynas will create 350 jobs for Msian people. However, why did the Australia government refuse to take on the refinery project if the risk is low? Lynas is given a 12 years tax break by the BN government. What is the gain for the Msian people in this transaction? Are those 350 jobs worth risking the lives of millions of Msian? There is something going on between Lynas and the government behind closed doors. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3346088496263&set=a.3346085776195.2160982.1390291211&type=1 This is a picture of me taken outside the Apple Inc. Headquarter in Cupertino, CA. Those who have seen this article, please take a picture of yourself holding an "Anti-Lynas" banner, and post it as your profile picture. Please SHARE this important message with your friends, let's support the Anti-Lynas campaign for a radiation-free Malaysia!