SCOTTISH INCINERATOR SET TO GO UP IN
SMOKE
After a damaging second fire onsite last
week, news has broken in Dundee Scotland
of ongoing major technical problems at the 2 year old Dundee Incinerator, and
sources in Dundee say that it is now inevitable
that receivers will be brought in by Bank of Scotland and the
Prudential to conduct an independent review.
The plant utilizes the same technology
(fluidized bed) as that proposed by Indaver for the Ringaskiddy project, which
Indaver admitted to a shocked Aghada community that they have no experience in
operating. Indaver rejected accusations by CHASE that they would be using the
Cork Community as Guinea Pigs, claiming that fluidized bed is a ‘proven
technology’. The technology however has had a number of failures resulting in
closure in the US, and the Dundee plant has had
20 separate breaches of safety limits reported to the Scottish
EPA over emissions from the plant. This is the second reported
fire at the plant, which has only been operating for 10 months
after a fire in September 2000 caused it to be shut down, with
one of the boilers still out of action since
then.
Sean Cronin, CHASE Chairperson declared,
“This absolutely vindicates our fear, as stated at the Aghada meeting of the Cork population being used as
guinea pigs. This is what is regarded as a proven technology,
and it has been a complete disaster in terms of accidents and
emissions, and there are claims of higher-than-average rates
of non-Hodgkins lymphoma in the area. Incineration is a
completely unsafe and volatile technology, which will be
regarded as barbaric in the future”.
The plant (120,000 tonnes capacity,
generating 8MW electricity) was given the go-ahead in October 1997, and
completed two years later, and has been a major embarrassment for the Dundee
City Council. Highland Council’s head of waste strategy has stated that Highland should avoid the mistake of adopting a relatively
untested fluidized bed incinerator, given the Dundee
experience.
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