ILVA steel plant to keep biggest furnace active until 2015

The ILVA steelworks in southern Italy plans to keep one of its blast furnaces operating for another two and a half years, despite a court order for immediate shutdown issued last July to address what prosecutors and judges say is an ongoing environmental disaster endangering the lives of local residents and poisoning the environment. A calendar of remediation measures at ILVA's Taranto plant shows Blast Furnace 5 - the biggest in Europe - will be shut down July 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015 for reconstruction. The director of the plant, Adolfo Buffo, is to present the plan later Monday.