On 30 June 2011, the Malaysian Government presented to the press and the public in Kuala Lumpur the final report of an IAEA expert mission that reviewed radiation safety at the Lynas Project, a rare earth processing facility under construction near Kuantan in Pahang state to the Malaysian Government.
The final report can be accessed here.
The report was submitted by the IAEA to the Malaysian Government on 28 June 2011 and follows a week-long mission undertaken from 30 May until 3 June 2011 by ten international experts, which included technical meetings and numerous sessions to gather public views and hear concerns about the facility.
The review team also met Lynas Project staff and visited the construction site.
Background
On 3 May 2011, a high-level delegation representing the Malaysian government met IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano to request the Agency to organize an independent panel of international experts to review the radiation health and safety aspects of the Lynas Project.
Support for the international expert mission to review the Lynas Project was provided through the IAEA Technical Cooperation Programme, and focused on the project's compliance with relevant international Safety Standards and Good Practices, and as well as providing an independent expert opinion on the radiological safety aspects of the Lynas Project.
The members of the independent, international expert team are knowledgeable in IAEA Safety Standards and have broad professional experience in their respective disciplines, in particular those radiological safety aspects related to rare earth processing and Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials, as well as regulatory control, radiation protection for workers, the public and the environment, in addition to expertise in safety assessments, waste management, environmental monitoring and surveillance, decommissioning and environmental remediation and transport safety.
Malaysia actively participates in the Asian Nuclear Safety Network and strongly supports the Network as the main instrument to improve nuclear safety in the region.