UK company to recycle toxic French warship
By admin on Jul 2, 2008 in Recycling, Featured, Environment, News
Hartlepool-based company Able UK has been awarded a controversial contract to dismantle and recycle a French aircraft carrier which was deamed too toxic to break up in India.Â
The agreement to send the Clemenceau, once the flagship of the French navy, to Able UK, ends an embarrassing five-year saga that had the toxic vessel being passed around the world looking for a final resting place.  The deal to scrap the 32,700-tonne Clemenceau is said to be the biggest of its kind in Europe.
The French Defence Ministry awarded the contract to Able UK after the Environment Agency issued a waste management licence that allows the Hartlepool firm to dismantle ships and oil rigs at its TERRC facility at Graythorp. The company is due to begin recycling work on the 780ft-long (238 metre) vessel later this year.
French President Jacques Chirac had to recall the ship from India two years ago after the Socialist opposition at the time denounced Mr Chirac for “lecturing the world on the environment while having other countries deal with our toxic ships.”
Work on the Clemenceau will take place alongside existing contracts to scrap four vessels from the American National Defense Reserve Fleet.
Able UK chairman Peter Stephenson said: “We have always argued that, given the opportunity, we would lead the way in recycling ships to the highest possible environmental standards.
“This has been underlined with the decision by the French authorities that we should undertake the work on the Clemenceau, which will be the biggest ship recycling project so far handled by any European yard.”
