THE ASBESTOS-contaminated French aircraft carrier Clemenceau, whose proposed dismantling in India caused international controversy, arrived yesterday on Teesside to be broken up.
The arrival of the 255m (834ft) vessel, the largest ship to be recycled in Europe, vindicates the determination of a British company, Able UK, to turn a former shipyard site near Hartlepool into a world-class dismantling centre.
The Clemenceauwas berthed alongside four so-called ghost ships, US naval reserve vessels, which arrived more than five years ago in a storm of environmental and regulatory controversy.
Peter Stephenson, Able UK’s chairman, has fought a six-year battle with environmental campaigners, waded through planning and legislative controls and spent millions on legal fees to achieve his commercial objectives for the Teesside Environmental Reclamation and Recycling Centre.
Environmental campaigners have claimed the Clemenceaucontains 760 tonnes of asbestos and 330 tonnes of PCB chemicals. But Able says such figures are misleading because they refer to the total quantity of materials that may be contaminated.
Some local opposition remains but many locals want the jobs.
Able’s 25-acre dock still had enough space to receive a couple more vessels, said Mr Stephenson. Negotiations are in progress to bring in two UK ships.
Dismantling work on the hulls of all these ships will begin this summer, providing 200 jobs.
Mr Stephenson urged governments to outlaw cheap, unregulated shipbreaking and commended the US and French governments for using a UK facility.
The Clemenceau,launched in 1957, was a mainstay of the French Navy before being decommissioned in 1997. The vessel, now called the Q790, was first sent by the French to India in 2006 for dismantling, provoking a storm of protest. She was boarded by Greenpeace activists off Egypt before turning back to France.
Able UK’s facility has some of the world’s most rigorous regulatory controls, Bob Pailor of the Environment Agency said, to ensure safe and environmentally sound dismantling and recycling.
The French government paid Able €10 million to dismantle the ship. – ( Financial Timesservice)