British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) has begun preparatory work on a social audit that could lead to publication of the group’s first social report by the end of 2000.
The nuclear fuel manufacturer and electricity generator has been holding preliminary discussions with consultants and stakeholders about the possible scope of the audit and the likely range of performance indicators. A company spokesperson said: ‘we are working on a structure at the moment, but it is still very early days’.
The move has been partly inspired by recent research that showed BNFL was not perceived by the public to be as socially responsible as senior company executives believe it is.
‘We need to bridge the gap in perception by producing a social report outlining where we are, where we want to be, and what we want to do’, said a company source.
Although BNFL has mainly concentrated in the past on improving its environmental and health and safety records, it has recently been stepping up its efforts on community initiatives.
Its latest annual environment report, published last month, says the group has decided to enter into talks with stakeholders ‘to better inform us of the aspirations of the broader community’.
The report, verified by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance, claims the group has made considerable progress in improving safety at its nuclear installations.
It reports that the total recordable accident rate throughout the group fell by 40 per cent during 1998/9 and that for the first time in the group’s history no employee or contractor was exposed to more than 15 millisieverts of radiation. The legal dose limit is 50mSv.
The number of incidents registered on the International Nuclear Events Scale was 19 – down from 25 in 1997/8 and 24 in 1996/7. Eighteen of these events were at the lowest level, 1, with one at level 2, which is officially classified as an incident though not regarded as serious. The highest score on the scale is 7 for a Chernobyl-style major accident.
However, other statistics in the report show that BNFL is struggling to reach its target of reducing solid radioactive waste from sites by 50 per cent on 1995/6 levels by the end of 2001.
BNFL employs nearly 20,000 people in 15 countries and had pretax profits of £228 million in the financial year 1998/9.