Lynas Plant - Design and Construction Flaws

No to Lynas

Nicholas Curtis, the executive chairman of Lynas, strongly denied at a pree conference in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday (30th June) that the refinery had any construction problem. he said that there were no more than routine discussions among engineers about technical question.

He was referring to the New York Times report.

Click Design Flaws for the report.

A Summary of the reported flaws :

1. Structural cracks in many of the 70 numbers of containment tanks. Some tanks are larger than double-decker buses.

2. These tanks were built using conventional concrete instead of the high cost polymer concrete mixed with plastic.

3. The plant used standard steel pipes that are not suitable for the corrosive, abrasive slurry instead of the costlier stainless steel or steel with rubber or ceramic lining that are commonly used by other rare earth refineries.

4. Crack and moisture in the concrete containment wall. Fiberglass supplier Akzo Nobel of Amsterdam said,"We will not certify or even consider the use of our coating if this problem can't be fixed."

5. The plant foundations were constructed without an impermeable plastic waterproof lining that was provided for in the design but was omitted to save cost.

Must watch video - Pahang Killer Plant

Lynas's proposal for radioactive waste disposal
1. Mixing it with lime to make large concrete shapes known as tetrapods that are used to build artificial reefs for fish and as sea walls to prevent beach erosion.

2. Burying the waste in road beds.

3. Accumulate the radioactive waste in a 4.8 hectares of storage ponds that stand on concrete piles on swamp land. (In other countries radioactive waste were buried in high ground in dry places where there is little chance that rainwater or groundwater will leach away contaminants.)

Just wonder whether IAEA has commented on these proposals.


.