02/07/2008
The former pride of the French navy, aircraft carrier Clemenceau, whose dismantling in India stirred international controversy, is to be dismantled at the Hartlepool yard of Able U.K., in the northeast of England. The contract for the work of dismantling of the ship, laden with asbestos, is the biggest ship-recycling project handled by any European yard. Able will be paid between €2.5 million and €4 million plus the value of the scrap it will recycle.

The ship was deemed too toxic to be dismantled in India and was sent back to France at the end of a five-year-saga. The environment protection campaigners fought tooth and nail to block its transfer to Alang, in India's west coast, which is home to the world's largest ship-breaking yard. The green campaigners had accused the French government of exporting its pollution to the developing world and endangering the lives of scrap-yard workers by exposing them to asbestos, which can cause cancer.

Ingvild Jenssen of the Brussels-based NGO Platform on Shipbuilding, a coalition of 14 non-governmental organizations, including Greenpeace, said that Able appeared to have the necessary controls and permits in place to protect the workers.

The aircraft carrier was decommissioned in 1997, and efforts to break it up started in 2003, when its hull was sold to a Spanish company.

Source: RTT News