Transcript presentation - People`s Health Movement

Lynas: Radioactive Waste Dumping
from Rare Earth Refining
Chan Chee Khoon
People’s Health Forum, Malaysia
[email protected]
July 7, 2012
Rare Earth Elements (Lanthanides)
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Valuable ingredients in powerful
miniaturized magnets, in metal alloys, as
catalysts in oil and gas industries, optical
enhancers in high performance video
display screens (Prius hybrid car motors &
batteries, smart-phones, wind turbines,
precision bombs, etc)
China currently produces ~ 95% rare
earth minerals
Export controls, skyrocketing prices of
Lynas Rare Earth Minerals Refinery
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REOs (40% concentrates) imported from W
Australia
Gebeng refinery - digestion with concentrated acids,
extraction and purification
also produces 20,000 tonnes powdery solid wastes
annually ~1600 ppm 232Thorium and lesser
amounts of 238Uranium and their radioactive
progenies
long term plan for solid waste disposal?
onsite RSF (10 years capacity)
recycle by re-dilution in bulk manufacture of
cement, road base, fertilizer & gypsum products(?)
Ionizing Radiation
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Alpha (α) radiation (helium nucleus, 8000x mass of electron)
Beta (β) radiation (electron, or positron with accompanying
neutrino)
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Gamma (γ) radiation (short wavelength energetic ray)
Radiation dosimetry (inverse square law); α-dosimetry
Bio-kinetics of internal emitters (absorption, mobility,
retention, excretion, localisation [down to the sub-cellular and
molecular level])
232Thorium decay series
Unexplained Excess of Childhood Leukemias
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‘safe thresholds’ of 1 mSv/yr (public), 20 mSv/yr
(occupational) based on ICRP’s quantitative risk models –
calibrated against external irradiation (Hiroshima/Nagasaki
atomic bomb blasts)
Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant (UK, 1983)
Chernobyl (Ukraine, 1986)
KiKK study (Germany, children <5yr). Residence <5km from
nuclear power plant, doubling of childhood leukemia risk Int
J Cancer, February 2008
Geocap study (France, children <15 yr). Residence <5km vs.
>20km from nuclear power plant, doubling of childhood
leukemia risk Int J Cancer, February 2012
above excesses @ exposures 100-1000x below 1 mSv/yr
Competing Hypotheses
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could the excess leukaemia be due to inhaled or ingested radioactive
particulates not satisfactorily accounted for in ICRP’s risk models? A
UK expert panel (2004, ) could not arrive at a consensus regarding the
health risks of low level exposure to these internal emitters. Opinions
among the UK panel members ranged from negligible adverse effects
to an underestimation of risk by at least a 100 fold – clearly no
consensus among the experts.
could the excess leukaemia be due to electromagnetic fields associated with
high voltage power cables linked to the nuclear power stations?
or to population mixing and vulnerability to infectious agents suspected of
causing leukaemia? (Kinlen hypothesis)
or to paternal irradiation of reproductive gametes? (Gardner)
or to teratogenic effects on the developing foetus/embryo? (Fairlie)
No one can be sure.
ARE’s legacy – a neglected, continuing problem
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indiscriminate clandestine dumping of thorium-cake
wastes in 1980s - Lahat, Menglembu, Pengkalan, Jelapang,
Buntong, Simpang Pulai, among other locations
thorium cake wastes from ARE’s operations contained up
to 360,000 ppm 232Thorium (Akademi Sains Malaysia,
2011)1
unknown number of dump sites at unknown locations?
excess childhood leukemias in greater Ipoh?
lung cancers among ARE employee cohorts?
Kledang dumpsite – gas seepage containing 222Radon?
1 Rare Earth Industries: Moving Malaysia’s Green Economy Forward, p.30, table 2.9, Akademi Sains
Malaysia, August 2011. ARE’s thorium cake wastes also contain 7000ppm 238Uranium
Thank You