UPDATE: Lynas Gains Ally in Malaysian Nuke Expert

The almost complete $200-million rare earths processing plant in Malaysia of Lynas Corp. continues to wrangle protests, even as a nuke expert had said the plant is very much safe.

Dr Che Rosli Che Mat, a nuclear expert and Hulu Langat member of parliament in Malaysia, had openly defended the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP), stressing the Malaysian public has been tricked to believe by false accusations of various people, who ironically do not also know much about the topic on hand.

"They are frightening the public by saying that Lynas is a nuclear plant when its function is only to process natural materials like rare earths from Mount Weld in Western Australia, which has less radiation compared with an ore mine," The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia) quoted Dr Rosli as saying in an interview with a private television station in Malaysia.

On Sunday morning, about 10,000 protesters rallied near the plant in Kuantan, the capital city of Malaysia's Pahang state, denouncing government's approval to issue a temporary operating license (TOL) for the plant's operations. The protesters likewise decried the plant will produce radioactive waste harmful to the immediate community and the environment. Sunday's protest action was the largest ever held since objections against the plant started over a year ago, the BusinessGhana reported.

Too much politicking, according to Dr Rosli, is the bottom line of all the protests against the LAMP.

All the accusations hurled against Lynas Corp. and the LAMP were "unscientific and not at all academic," the nuclear expert, who graduated from a university in the United Kingdom, according to The New Straits Times Press (Malaysia), said.

Dr Rosli believed Lynas Corp. will not bring harm to Malaysia and its locals, otherwise it risks losing not only its corporate image but also the potential of its rare earths project. However, the Australian miner should ensure to comply with strict safety standards and regulations to guarantee that the health and safety of the residents were protected.

Last week, environmentalists and Kuantan residents went to court and applied for judicial review to stop the plant, claiming its radioactive waste would contaminate the sea water and destroy the town's fishing industry, one of Kuantan's main sources of economy.