http://news.yam.com/afp/international/200807/20080702318950.html
受石綿污染法國航艦克里蒙梭號將在英國拆解
法新社╱陳昶佑 2008-07-02 00:35 調整字級：
（法新社巴黎一日電）法國官員今天說，受石綿污染的法國「克里蒙梭號」航空母艦，將在英國進行拆解；法國政府為了拆解這艘航艦，拖著它經過半個地球，一直無法完成工作。
法國國防部發布聲明說，曾是法國海軍強權象徵的克里蒙梭號，將由「英國艾伯公司」拆解，該公司的船塢位於英格蘭東北部。
這艘一九九七年退役的航艦目前停靠在法國西北部的布勒斯特港，一年前才返回法國；法國為了要尋找公司負責拆解船隻，拖著它最遠航行至印度，讓法國政府臉上無光。
環保團體一直全力阻止這艘航艦拖至印度西海岸、擁有全球最大拆船塢的阿朗港，它返回法國時，環保團體都讚揚是重大勝利。
環保人士與反對黨指責法國政府出口污染至開發中國家，危及廢料場工人的生命安全。
環保人士今天對於航艦計畫運往英國表示歡迎。
總部位於布魯塞爾的非政府組織「造船平台」的人員顏森說，艾伯公司擁有必要的管制措施，可以保護工人安全。
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080701/wl_uk_afp/francebritainenvironmentmilitaryshipclemenceau_080701150902
Toxic French warship to be dismantled in Britain: officials
by Herve Asquin
1 hour, 51 minutes ago
PARIS (AFP) - The asbestos-contaminated French aircraft carrier Clemenceau, which was towed to India in a failed bid to have it dismantled there, will be broken up in Britain, officials said Tuesday.
Once a proud symbol of France's naval might, the ship will be broken up by a company called Able UK whose shipyard is in the northeast of England, the defence ministry said in a statement.
The Clemenceau is currently docked in the northwestern French port of Brest, where it returned a year ago after an embarrassing saga that saw it towed as far as India in a bid to find a company to dismantle it safely.
Its return to France was hailed as a major victory by environmentalist groups, who had fought tooth and nail to block its transfer to Alang on India's west coast, home to the world's largest shipbreaking yard.
Green campaigners and the opposition had accused the French government of exporting its pollution to the developing world and endangering the lives of scrapyard workers there by exposing them to asbestos which can cause cancer.
Environmentalists on Tuesday welcomed the planned transfer to Britain of what is now officially known as "Hull Q790."
Ingvild Jenssen of the Brussels-based NGO Platform on Shipbuilding, a coalition of 14 non-governmental organisations including Greenpeace, said Able appeared to have the necessary controls in place to protect workers.
"Overall we're happy to see the ship going to the UK rather than India," he told AFP by telephone, adding that "as far as we know now, Able does have all its environmental permits and planning permits."
Asbestos, once hailed as a "miracle material" because of its strength and heat-resisting properties, was widely used by manufacturers and builders until it was banned in the latter part of the last century when its carcinogenic dangers were confirmed.
Britain and France must draw up a "cross-border transfer authorisation," a procedure which will take a few weeks and after which the Clemenceau will be able to leave Brest, the defence ministry statement said.
Able said the vessel was expected to arrive at its yard in Graythorp "later this summer," and said the company will "lead the way in recycling ships to the highest possible environmental standards."
Able chairman Peter Stephenson told AFP that the contract to dismantle the Clemenceau would bring in up to four million euros (6.3 million dollars) and work would last about 10 months.
Three British ships and four retired US navy ships will be dismantled at the same time, he said.
The aircraft carrier, named after France's World War I prime minister Georges Clemenceau, was decommissioned in 1997. The efforts to break it up began in 2003, when its hull was sold to a Spanish company.
The buyer had agreed to remove the asbestos from the ship within the European Union. But when it started towing the Clemenceau to a breakers' yard in Turkey, a nation with lower health and safety standards than those of the EU, France cancelled the deal.
In 2005 Paris tried to send the Clemenceau to India for demolition but the Egyptian authorities blocked its passage through the Suez Canal on safety grounds.
After Cairo relented, it was the turn of the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to demand an explanation for the ship's dispatch to India.
In February 2006, the Indian High Court banned the Clemenceau from entering the country's territorial waters and then French president Jacques Chirac ordered the infamous vessel back home.
The Clemenceau, 266 metres (878 feet) long and 51 metres (170 feet) wide, saw action in the Lebanese civil war of the 1980s and the 1991 Gulf war.
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