CHINA is buying three coal-fired power stations from Britain in a move which has been described as an ''environmental disaster''.
The plan is to dismantle the outdated plants and ship them to the mainland.
Environmentalists claim the facilities are among the dirtiest in Britain, spewing out high emissions of the gases which cause acid rain.
''PowerGen [the plants' operator in Britain] is exporting filthy old technology to a country that desperately needs the latest and cleanest,'' said Friends of the Earth spokesman Simon Roberts.
''While governments are setting up funds like the Global Environment Facility to assist in the transfer of best technologies, they are doing little to stop the transfer of decrepit, dirty power stations.'' The multi-million-pound ''Chinese take-away'' is scheduled to begin early next year and could take months to complete.
The plants have a capacity of more than 1,300 megawatts (MW), but have become redundant in Britain because they are more than 30 years old, inefficient, unprofitable and would soon need expensive refits to bring them up to European Community acid rain emission standards.
Had the Chinese not stepped in, the giant electricity generators would probably have been scrapped.