WHAT IS RADIATION?

Radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of

waves or particles through space or through a material medium
Radiation are often categorized as:
o Ionizing radiation
o Non-ionizing radiation
o Cosmic radiation

RADIATION ISSUES

Lynas Corporation: Problem at Lynas Factory can cause radioactive leaks.

Issue with Lynas Corporation:

The Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) has generated

radioactive waste from the extraction of rare earth in the plant
where these rare earth is shipped from Mount Weld, Australia.
LAMP is located some 25km from the city of Kuantan and 2km from
residential areas as well as very near to the South China Sea. The
location of LAMP will affect a lot people that lived around the plant.
From LAMP, the waste product that is produced will include
radioactive uranium and thorium as well as their radioactive decay
products such as radium and radon. Unfortunately, the waste will
not be shipped back to Australia for safety disposal since Australian
authorities refused to accept them.

RISK FROM THE RADIOACTIVE WASTE

Thorium:
o The exposure to thorium can cause cancer posing serious risk
to the works at the LAMP and the surrounding communities.
o Inhaling thorium dust can cause an increased risk of
developing lung cancer and pancreas cancer.
o Bone cancer risk is also increased because thorium may be
stored in the bones
o The half-life of thorium is 14 billion years and is easily
transported, and spread through wind as well as water.

This means that people can be exposure to radiation easily as thoriums

decay rate is slow.

Uranium:
o When uranium is ingested or inhaled, it will cause the
development of cancer.
 o Exposure to uranium cause kidney diseases and respiratory
tract diseases to people if they are exposed to high level of
radiation from uranium.

Uranium also have a half-life of 4.46 billion years which means that its
decay rate is also slow.

This the main reason why people living near the LAMP are concerned
about the effect of radiation emitted by uranium and thorium as their
decay rate are very slow.

Radon:.
o It is a radioactive decay product of uranium and thorium, it is
a gas and it will seeps up through the ground and diffuses into
the air.
o If people are exposed to high level of radon, it will increase the
risk of developing lung cancer.
o As a gas, it can easily enter homes through the cracks in the
floors and walls which means that people living near the plant
cant avoid being exposure to radiation from the plant.

Radium:
o A radioactive decay of uranium and thorium. If radium is
absorb by plants from the soil, it will contaminate the animals
that eats them. Thus, it will also has an effect on people if the
animal is consumed by them.
o Exposure of high level of radium can cause teeth fracture,
anaemia and cataract. It will even cause cancer and death if
people are exposed to radium for a long period of time.

Some of the waste are also dumped into the South China Sea which
is contaminated the organism in it and will cause problems to fishing
communities as well as coastal resort.
 The first picture is a traditional radiation symbol
The second picture is ionizing radiation symbol

Lynas Corporation At Australia

From the picture above, the Lynas Corporation do the mining before it will
shipped to Kuantan Malaysia
 From the picture above, Lynas Corporation do the refining at
Kuantan, Malaysia

The raw materials which are rare earth that shipped to the
Kuantan are nichium,
tantalum, zirconium

Those raw materials will extract to get the product like rare
earth oxide which is highly demand from the customers

This product can create like Computer, Camera lenses, Smart

phone and fibre optic cable.

Step in processing
1. Cracking and Leaching

Mt Weld concentrate, which is essentially rare earth phosphate mineral, is

mixed with concentrated sulphuric acid and cracked at a high temperature
to convert the rare earth phosphate minerals to rare earth sulphate. Water
is added to the rare earth sulphate in the leaching stage and impurities in
the form of iron phosphogypsum are removed. The solution is neutralised
to provide rare earth solution as feed to solvent extraction.

2. Solvent Extraction

Solvent Extraction (SX) employs two liquid phases (organic and aqueous)
and is carried out in liquid-liquid counter current SX trains to progressively
separate the rare earths into groups and individual elements. The main
products are light rare earths including praseodymium/neodymium - PrNd;
cerium - Ce; lanthanum - La; LaCe - lanthanum cerium solutions, and
medium/heavy rare earths (samarium, europium, gadolinium SEG and
other Heavy Rare Earths HRE) solutions.

3. Product Finishing

In the final stage of the process, the rare earth elements in the solution
are precipitated as solid carbonates or oxalates. Some are then calcined
(cooked) to the respective oxides. The LAMP produces NdPr oxide, Ce
carbonate, Ce oxide, LaCe carbonate and LaCe oxide, and SEG oxide.

Finishing Product
 Filled bag of finished product

How radiation can occur and exposed to the people surrounding??

Factory has limited storage capacity and the waste is stored in
a poor linear system

If the waste in stored for a long period of time, it will cause

radioactive leaks and radiation emission

How to Overcome Ionization Radiation

1. Obey the standards and regulation of radiation exposure.

Radiation protection standards are based on the conservative

assumption that the risk is directly proportional to the dose, even at
the lowest levels, though there is no actual evidence of harm at low
levels, below about 100 mSv as short-term dose. To the extent that
cell damage is made good within a month (say), chronic dose rates
up to 100 mSv per month could also be safe, but the standard
assumption, called the 'linear no-threshold (LNT) hypothesis',
discounts the contribution of any such thresholds and is
recommended for practical radiation protection purposes only, such
as setting allowable levels of radiation exposure of individuals.
LNT was first accepted by the International Commission on
Radiological Protection (ICRP) in 1955, when scientific knowledge of
radiation effects was less, and then in 1959 by the United Nations
Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR)
as a philosophical basis for radiological protection at low doses,
stating outright that Linearity has been assumed primarily for
purposes of simplicity, and there may or may not be a threshold
dose. (Above 100 mSv acute dose there is some scientific evidence
for linearity in dose-effect.) From 1934 to 1955 a tolerance dose
limit of 680 mSv/yr was recommended by the ICRP, and no evidence
of harm from this either cancer or genetic had been documented.
The LNT hypothesis cannot properly be used for predicting the
consequences of an actual exposure to low levels of radiation and it
has no proper role in low-dose risk assessment. For example, LNT
suggests that, if the dose is halved from a high level where effects
have been observed, there will be half the effect, and so on. This
would be very misleading if applied to a large group of people
exposed to trivial levels of radiation and even at levels higher than
trivial it could lead to inappropriate actions to avert the doses. At
Fukushima following the March 2011 accident, maintaining the
evacuation beyond a few days did in fact lead to about 1100 deaths,
according to the Japan Reconstruction Agency.
Much of the evidence which has led to today's standards
derives from the atomic bomb survivors in 1945, who were exposed
to high doses incurred in a very short time. In setting occupational
risk estimates, some allowance has been made for the body's ability
to repair damage from small exposures, but for low-level radiation
exposure the degree of protection from applying LNT may be
misleading. At low levels of radiation exposure the dose-response
relationship is unclear due to background radiation levels and
natural incidence of cancer. However, the Hiroshima survivor data
published in 1958 by UNSCEAR for leukaemia actually shows a
reduction in incidence by a factor of three in the dose range 1 to
100 mSv. The threshold for increased risk here is about 400 mSv.
This is very significant in relation to concerns about radiation
exposure from contaminated areas after the Chernobyl and
Fukushima accidents.
The International Commission on Radiological Protection
(ICRP), set up in 1928, is a body of scientific experts and a
respected source of guidance on radiation protection, though it is
independent and not accountable to governments or the UN. Its
recommendations are widely followed by national health authorities,
the EU and the IAEA. It retains the LNT hypothesis as a guiding
principle.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has published
international radiation protection standards since 1962. It is the only
UN body with specific statutory responsibilities for radiation
protection and safety. Its Safety Fundamentals are applied in basic
safety standards and consequent Regulations. However, the UN
Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR)
 set up in 1955 is the most authoritative source of information on
ionizing radiation and its effects.
In any country, radiation protection standards are set by
government authorities, generally in line with recommendations by
the ICRP, and coupled with the requirement to keep exposure as low
as reasonably achievable (ALARA) taking into account social and
economic factors. The authority of the ICRP comes from the
scientific standing of its members and the merit of its
recommendations.
The three key points of the ICRP's recommendations are:
Justification. No practice should be adopted unless its
introduction produces a positive net benefit.
Optimization. All exposures should be kept as low as
reasonably achievable, economic and social factors
being taken into account.
Limitation. The exposure of individuals should not
exceed the limits recommended for the appropriate
circumstances.
National radiation protection standards are framed for both
Occupational and Public exposure categories.
The ICRP recommends that the maximum permissible dose for
occupational exposure should be 20 millisievert per year averaged
over five years (i.e. 100 millisievert in 5 years) with a maximum of
50 millisievert in any one year. For public exposure, 1 millisievert
per year averaged over five years is the limit. In both categories,
the figures are over and above background levels, and exclude
medical exposure

2. Courses and training

Training program offered by Nuclear Malaysia is seen as one of
the catalyst for the proper use and implementation of radiation
safety, as stipulated by the regulation. Rapid development in the
application of ionising radiation has created a new opportunity in
training needs. The training module is designed to respond to the
needs arising from the legislative requirements, in line with the
enforcement of the Act 304. Hence, those who deal with ionising
radiation, regardless of their economic activities, are required to
attend the recognised training. A training program is designed or
tailored to meet the needs of customers. In this regards, Nuclear
Malaysia has provided all these opportunities to cater for the
changing needs of customers. With suitable training approaches,
dedicated trainers, state of the art training facilities, the training has
attracted numerous customers from various industries and
institutions of higher learning both local and abroad. To improve
 safety performance in an organisation, those involved in radiation
activities are required to undergo continuous professional education
(CPE) to refresh and enhance their knowledge, and improve skills in
radiation related areas.
3. Radiation safety audit
The effectiveness of the safety program can be improved if
radiation safety audit is performed on the system. Through self-
audit, the performance of the radiation safety can be monitored to
check its effectiveness and to achieve stakeholders satisfaction.
The data and findings from the audit can be used as a basis for
decision within the organization through adequate analysis. It is
useful to describe improvement or deterioration in the system and
may give chance for early action to prevent any non-conformity in
the system

Nuclear Malaysia has pioneered and conducts training for internal

auditing of the radiation safety in the past three years for the public
and private sectors. The radiation safety audit course is developed
with modules describing the content of the audit trainings and the
performance of internal audit in organization dealing with nuclear
technology. Through this course, radiation protection officers will
able to conduct self-audit in his or her own premise. The main aim of
the audit is to:

Maintain facilities and equipment in a safe operating

condition.
Provide a safe working environment for all employees and
assess the level of emergency readiness.
Ensure that all procedures and activities are conducted in a
safe and prudent manner.
Ensure adherence to the content of the safety manual.

AELB is presently encouraging organizations dealing with nuclear

technology to slowly and voluntarily adopt the Radiation Safety
Management System, in line with requirement of the Occupational
Safety and Health (Safety & Health Committee) Regulation 1996.
The OSH Regulations specifically stipulates the need to take into
consideration on safety audit are to protect the safety of the
employees. In realising this need, Nuclear Malaysia has initiated a
course on Integrated Radiation Safety Management, IRSMS, which is
aimed to highlight the integration IAEA and AELB standard and
requirement into the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)
management. Through this integration, it is able to manage a
 variety of hazards on environmental, safety and health and by
promoting safe behaviour at all levels of workers.

As a structured system, IRSMS is seen to be a competitive and

sustainable product. The course is aimed to provide the basis of
integration into OSH management to ensure adequate protection of
workers, the public and the environment and encourage licensee to
manage radiation safety based on performance, and not on
compliance culture, with the final objective of professing a safety
culture through self-regulation. There is a significant improvement
observed in the IRSMS as compared to the current Radiation
Protection Program. This will certainly benefit an organization with
ultimate goals of continuously striving for a healthy, accident-free
and environmentally sound workplace and community, while
providing the technical support needed to meet the national
mission.

Reference

o http://stoplynas.org/health-issues/
o http://stoplynas.org/environmental/
o http://theconversation.com/should-malaysia-bear-the-burden-of-
australian-radioactive-waste-9566
o https://www.lynascorp.com/Pages/Kuantan-Lynas-Advanced-
Materials-Plant.aspx
o https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynas
o General Principles for the Radiation Protection of Workers, Annals of
the ICRP, Vol.21 No.1 1997.
o Key Practical Issue in Strengthening Safety Culture, INSAG-15, IAEA,
2002.
o Management Systems For Technical Services in Radiation Safety,
IAEA Safety Standards, Safety Guide DS315, 2005.
o Muhamad Lebai Juri, Radiation Safety Audit, 2nd Asian Oceanic
Congress on Radiation Protection, Beijing, 9-13 October 2006.
o Noriah Mod Ali, Trends of Occupational Exposure in Malaysia, 11th
International Congress on Radiation Protection, Spain, 23-28 May
2004.