Taskforce on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility
Organization profile published 1984
Year Published: 1984
Resource Type: Organization
Cx Number: CX2901
Abstract:
The Task Force on the Churches and Corporate Responsibility was established in 1974 as a national ecumenical coalition to help member churches implement policies in the area of corporate social responsibility. Member churches see their involvement in energy/environmental issues in terms of stewardship, with concern that energy choices contribute towards a just, participatory, and sustainable society.
In 1983, the Task Force Ecological Justice sub-committee addressed its attention to such issues as nuclear waste (high - level, low - level, uranium mine and mill wastes), lead in gasoline and the health effects of lead exposure, and the ongoing fight of the Nishga Indians in B.C. against AMAX Corporation which has discharged tailings from its molybdenum operation into the waters of Alice Arm, B. C.
The Task Force made submissions to the Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) and to the federal and provincial governments about the structure and process for assessment of the proposal by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) for deep geological disposal of wastes. Those submissions, along with the government and agency responses, are summarized in the Task Force Annual Report, 1982-83. Also available, separately, from the Task Force is a 14-page document from R.G. Hart of AECL dated March 24, 1983, which states the AECL position.
Task Force monitoring of low-level waste management in 1983 focussed on the federal approval of the establishment under AECL of a waste management office to carry out the federal responsibility in this field, thus leading to possible conflict of interest with the AECL's mandate to promote use of nuclear power. At the present there are no facilities licensed for the permanent disposal of such wastes, there are more than 130 million tones of uranium mine and mill wastes in Canada alone, and the volume could triple by the end of the century, the Annual Report notes.
There is Task Force concern that economic factors will be too heavily weighted in evaluation of various processes for dealing with waste. It notes that the most expensive methods of disposal would likely increase the overall cost of nuclear generated electricity by only one to three per cent because uranium costs are typically only about ten per cent.
The TASK FORCE is working in co-operation with the Inter-Church Uranium Committee (CX 2903) on this issue of waste management.
This abstract was published in the Connexions Digest in 1984.
See also CX922, CX2483.
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