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Showing posts from April, 2011

DILEMMA OF RARE EARTH PLANT

The radiation incident involving one the most developed countries had sparked an aggressive sentiment through out the whole world regarding to the quality of standard safety measures of nuclear energy plant. Rare earth (RE), even though not as risky as the actual uranium ores, still deemed as a threat to the local people. A heated debate lingers in Gebeng, state of Pahang, Malaysia.  In terms of quantity, the material was abundant in the earth's crust. However, only few places in the world have the most high quality  RE ores such as Lynas's Mount Weld in Western Australia. For decades, China has become the most prominent RE producers in the world with 80% reserves of RE in the world (Y.Zhang, Q.J.Meng & N.Zhou, 2007) The RE waste disposal procedure are a vital concern to scientist as it pose a serious threat to the food chain. RE ores and commodities, including the by-product and waste materials resulted from RE processing are naturally radioactive due the presence of