Thursday 30 June 2011

Malaysian Government Releases IAEA Report on Lynas Project


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 at http://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/pdf/lynas-report2011.pdf

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.

-IAEA-

Wednesday 29 June 2011

Radiation in Everyday Life

Radioactivity is a part of our earth - it has existed all along. Naturally occurring radioactive materials are present in its crust, the floors and walls of our homes, schools, or offices and in the food we eat and drink. There are radioactive gases in the air we breathe. Our own bodies - muscles, bones, and tissue - contain naturally occurring radioactive elements.

Man has always been exposed to natural radiation arising from the earth as well as from outside the earth. The radiation we receive from outer space is called cosmic radiation or cosmic rays.

We also receive exposure from man-made radiation, such as X-rays, radiation used to diagnose diseases and for cancer therapy. Fallout from nuclear explosives testing, and small quantities of radioactive materials released to the environment from coal and nuclear power plants, are also sources of radiation exposure to man.

Radioactivity is the term used to describe disintegration of atoms. The atom can be characterized by the number of protons in the nucleus. Some natural elements are unstable. Therefore, their nuclei disintegrate or decay, thus releasing energy in the form of radiation. This physical phenomenon is called radioactivity and the radioactive atoms are called nuclei. The radioactive decay is expressed in units called becquerels. One becquerel equals one disintegration per second.

The radionuclides decay at a characteristic rate that remains constant regardless of external influences, such as temperature or pressure. The time that it takes for half the radionuclides to disintegrate or decay is called half-life. This differs for each radioelement, ranging from fractions of a second to billions of years. For example, the half-life of Iodine 131 is eight days, but for Uranium 238, which is present in varying amounts all over the world, it is 4.5 billion years. Potassium 40, the main source of radioactivity in our bodies, has a half-life of 1.42 billion years.

Lynas Project

On 28 June 2011, the IAEA submitted the 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 report 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.

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.