Asian Rare Earth Incident Haunts Lynas Expansion Plans

My mother was reading some news and it jolted her she put the news and some memories together. One of her colleague and classmate had a sudden case on leukaemia  just barely 2 years out of the teaching college. From a strong, upbeat, intelligent, sporty person, her friend turned into a frail skeletal shelf - as noted by another friend who visited - in Perak just days before she passed away.

And what rings to bell to most people there, is the incident of radioactive contamination by a firm called Asian Rare Earth.

And further news report of a new processing plant of similar sorts by Lynas Corp in Gebeng, Pahang has started a huge awareness campaign. The word "radioactive" has its profile risen incredibly by the nuclear reactor situation in Fukushima. Perhaps not since those atomic bombs, and Chernobyl, Ukraine.

Here is the full story done by New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/09/business/energy-environment/09rareside.html?_r=1

Excerpts:
"To dispose of the radioactive material, engineers have cut the top off a hill three miles away in a forest reserve, buried the material inside the hill’s core and then entombed it under more than 20 feet of clay and granite."