A former nuclear regulator says public anxiety over Lynas’s rare earth plant stems more from political battles than actual scientific data, which shows radiation levels remain within safe limits.
PETALING JAYA: Public fear over Lynas Malaysia’s rare earth plant has often been driven more by politics than actual radiation risk, according to a former nuclear regulator who oversaw assessments of the plant’s radioactive activities during his years in government service.
The former director-general of the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB), which previously handled licensing before the Department of Atomic Energy assumed full oversight, said concerns about Lynas should be separated from technical findings collected over years of monitoring. He requested not to be named.
“People often get worried by the word ‘radioactive’, but the real question for regulators is whether exposure stays within limits considered safe for workers, nearby communities and the environment,” he told theSun via phone yesterday.
“When we say something needs a licence, it does not mean it is dangerous. It means we want to control it properly, so it does not harm individuals.
“The hard limit for the public is one millisievert (mSv) per year, and that is what we calculate against. That dose determines whether something is dangerous.
“Throughout my assessments, we recorded no effects at all. We only license the Lynas factory so it could be controlled safely.”
He said licensing for an industry such as Lynas is based on evidence, not assumptions, relying on sampling, calculations and inter-agency review covering environmental, safety and radiation-related checks.
“Monitoring includes water, groundwater, air and other environmental samples.”
He described readings linked to Lynas during his tenure as “very low.”
“When the factory is operating, we monitor it closely. We take water samples, groundwater samples, air samples and other environmental samples.
When we analyse them, we see the content is really low. There’s a lot of calculation involved, so you cannot simply say, ‘Oh, it is dangerous’.”
He added that public anxiety around Lynas was shaped by earlier political battles involving radiation-related industries, with fears later spilling into debates about the plant.
“Sometimes, public concern grew louder than what the scientific assessments were actually showing, even though data from monitoring remained within controlled limits.”
He also highlighted Lynas’s strategic importance, adding that rare earth materials are central to modern manufacturing and advanced technology supply chains.
“Rare earth income is not just billions, it is trillions. They are used in gadgets, handphones, drones, TVs and satellites.
“So concerns about danger are very minor. But we still control it with good safety measures.”
