Recycling contract for aircraft carrier is confirmed (From The Northern Echo)

Recycling contract for aircraft carrier is confirmed

11:27am Tuesday 1st July 2008 in

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ABLE UK has confirmed what it called the biggest ship recycling contract in Europe with the arrival of the French former aircraft carrier the Clemenceau.

The Hartlepool firm said the vessel, which contains at least 700 tonnes of asbestos contaminated material, would arrive at its Teesside Environmental Reclamation and Recycling Centre(TERRC)at Able Seaton Port, Graythorp, later this summer.

It said remediation and recycling work will take place alongside the other vessels already berthed at the facility, including four vessels from the American National Defense Reserve Fleet and three UK ships.

The Northern Echo was first to reveal Able's intentions to bring the Clemenceau to the North-East on June 14.

Days later the paper also revealed that a deal had been signed for the carrier with the French Ministry of Defence.

Launched in 1957, the Clemenceau was the mainstay of the French naval fleet and sailed over a million nautical miles before being decommissioned in 1997.

Able has been competing against two French firms, one from Italy and one from Belgium for the vessel, which caused an international storm two years ago after the authorities in France agreed it could set sail for India to be broken up.

Environmental campaigners across the world later held an international day of action, with Greenpeace protestors boarding the ship while it was off the coast of Egypt.

India's Supreme Court later forced the French to take it back.