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British ship believed carrying plutonium leaves Japan for US | |
(35 minutes later) | |
TOKYO — An armed British ship believed to be carrying enough plutonium to make about 40 atomic bombs left a port in eastern Japan on Tuesday to bring the shipment to the U.S. for storage. | |
The ship, operated by Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd., was to take the 331 kilograms (730 pounds) of plutonium to a U.S. government facility in South Carolina under Japan’s 2014 pledge. | The ship, operated by Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd., was to take the 331 kilograms (730 pounds) of plutonium to a U.S. government facility in South Carolina under Japan’s 2014 pledge. |
The British-flagged, armed nuclear fuel transport ship Pacific Egret left the port in Tokai village, northeast of Tokyo, one day after arriving with another armed ship that had waited off-shore, Kyodo News agency reported. Tokai is home to the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, a nuclear research complex where the plutonium had been used for research. | |
JAEA refused to confirm the shipping details, citing security reasons. | |
Japan’s stockpile and its fuel-reprocessing ambitions to use plutonium as fuel for power generation have been a source of international security concerns. | |
Japan has accumulated a massive stockpile of plutonium — 11 metric tons in Japan and another 36 tons that have been reprocessed in Britain and France and are waiting to be returned to Japan — enough to make nearly 6,000 atomic bombs. | |
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. | Copyright 2016 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
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