Uranium Stewardship and Sustainable Development

 Uranium Stewardship is one pillar that supports the overarching concept of Sustainable Development. Its role is to ensure that business management focuses simultaneously on economic development; environmental impact and the fulfillment of social responsibilities. For an enterprise accepting the goal and duties of Stewardship, these three objectives become “triple bottom line accountability”. To pursue these objectives effectively, an enterprise must establish productive working relations with government ministries, companies within and outside of its immediate sector, and other stakeholders.

The Business Ethics Challenge

 Surrounding communities have become more educated about what is happening in mining operations, and are increasingly better informed about the nature of mining and its associated activities. This awareness has led to increased pressure on miners with respect to their social responsibilities at the same time challenging the sector on operating procedures and even marketing initiatives.

The global uranium market is forecast to grow rapidly in the short to medium term on the recognition that uranium will play a valuable role in reducing greenhouse gasses through its part in nuclear power generation. The consequence of such favourable short to medium term fundamentals is an expanding uranium market driven by better prices and a cleaner environment. The business ethics challenge is to balance financial rewards with environmental and social responsibility on growing public awareness and involvement.

Pressure is not restricted to only surrounding communities. It also comes from downstream users of uranium. This has resulted in the mining sector having to understand, and track its product, through the various stages from the raw material right the way through processing; manufacturing; consumption and even the recycling, of the original resource. This larger “cradle to grave” philosophy is known as the nuclear fuel cycle.

Part of the nuclear fuel cycle includes the long-term management of nuclear waste. This is a challenge that requires the participation of industry, governments and the community to reach agreement on matters such as treatment techniques and sites for repositories.

The World Nuclear Association and Uranium Stewardship

The World Nuclear Association (WNA) is a global organization that promotes the peaceful use of nuclear power as a sustainable energy source for the future. The WNA members are involved in the full nuclear fuel cycle that includes mining, conversion, enrichment, fuel fabrication, plant manufacture, transport and the safe disposal of spent fuel.

The first meeting of the WNA Uranium Stewardship Working Group was held in London in September 2006 with members from all sectors of the nuclear life cycle represented and it was here that a definition of Uranium Stewardship was agreed upon.

Uranium Stewardship is a ‘programme of action based on continued commitment to ensure that uranium and its by-products are managed in a safe, environmentally responsible, economically and socially acceptable manner’. It seeks to promote shared responsibility in the nuclear fuel cycle using best practices to improve industry participation and through encouraging sharing to support continuous improvement.