Replies to post #1549 on Lynas Corp. Ltd. (LYSCF)

[DocLee]

Fear Based On Ignorance Encouraged By Self-Serving Politicians Is behind all this.

Fear of Radioactivity is what will continue to drive this problem until the public learns and appreciates the true level of risk. To Joe Public RADIOACTIVITY is to be avoided at all costs as RADIOACTIVITY is bad. This is because most people quite naturally equate RADIOACTIVITY with nuclear bombs and nuclear reactors, especially those that have gone wrong such as at Chernobyl, Three Mile Island and Fukushima. Such RADIOACTIVITY as was released in those incidents was (and is) to be avoided at all costs - and for most people that view is extended to any form of RADIOACTIVITY.

That is where the problem lies. Most RADIOACTIVITY is not as dangerous as that from bombs and reactors, either in ferocity or in quantity. RADIOACTIVITY is all around us, no matter where you live. I live on a granite island and so am exposed to increased levels of the radioactive gas, Radon. However, I don't smoke and so don't inhale any radioactive Polonium. I live not all that far away from a nuclear power station (I can see it on a clear day) but will inhale negligible levels of radioactive substances derived from its day-to-day operations. I would be more worried if I lived close to a coal-fired power station as I would then be inhaling much larger quantities of radioactive particles from the fly-ash. The U.S. National Council on Radiation, Protection and Measurement measured the amounts of radiation released into the atmosphere from a 1000MWe coal-fired power plant and found it to be 100 times greater than for a nuclear power plant (490 person-rem/year cf 4.8 person-rem/year).

But people aren't running scared of coal-fired power stations, even the 2 which even now are being built on the Malaysian peninsula!! Why, because the word RADIOACTIVITY hasn't been linked to them.

It has, however, been linked to LAMP because the Japanese contaminated a large area with thorium in the 1980s. Thorium-232 itself is only very mildly radioactive (it has a half-life of 14.05 billion years) and it makes up about 0.17% of the REE-containing ore that is shipped to Malaysia (the Japanese ore contained 10%). As such, there is radiation but this is far, far less than other current sources of environmental radiation.

It would help Lynas if the local people who actually fear the possibility of radiation from the thorium in the waste products from LAMP could be educated into the true risks. However, it will be a long uphill task to overcome their established bias.

I would suggest that you read this article and the subsequent correspondence (particularly from a "SLSM" activist, Jade Lee - no relation thank God) to get some flavour of the problem. However, it is to a degree encouraging as there are several vociferous correspondents who are willing to take on the "Stop Lynas Save Malaysia" activists by showing them just how irrational their arguments are.

[piratica]

'subslover', well, there you have it, they are planning a hunger strike, like if they did not need to put food on their table. I have not averaged down with the hope that it was going back to $1.25 since I got in six months ago at around $1.06, should have sold on the last good spike that was around $.95 and take my loss at that time, now I am with you and see if it gets back somewhere decent to bail out, it does not look to good for Lynas for the future with this turmoil going on. Wishing you the very best of the season, lets hope for a better new year. GLTY