10 fail in bid to challenge Lynas licenceKUALA LUMPUR: Ten local...

10 fail in bid to challenge Lynas licence

KUALA LUMPUR: Ten local residents have failed to get leave to challenge the Atomic Energy Licensing Board's decision to grant a temporary operating licence for Lynas Malaysia's rare earth procession plant in Gebeng, Kuantan.

On Feb 17, the group of 10 residents had filed the application, naming the Atomic Energy Licensing Board (AELB), which oversees the production, application and use of atomic energy and radioactive material, the Director-General of Environment Quality and Lynas Malaysia Sdn Bhd (Lynas) as respondents.

The AELB had raised preliminary objections over the leave application.

In the application, the residents sought a certiorari order to quash the AELB's Jan 30 decision to issue the temporary licence to Lynas Malaysia.

They also applied for an order to prohibit the AELB from issuing any temporary or permanent licence to Lynas, except or until the company presented a detailed evaluation report on the plant's effects on the environment to the Director-General of Environment Quality, and until the report was approved.

More to come

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/4/12/nation/20120412150900&sec=nation