Secret shipment of nuclear bomb material from Europe to Japan

DURING the week beginning July 12th, two ships carrying a secret cargo of dangerous, nuclear weapons-usable plutonium fuel will leave ports in Britain and France and sail around the globe to Japan. On board will be fuel containing more plutonium than in the entire Indian nuclear weapons program.

The two British flagged vessels, the Pacific Teal and the Pacific Pintail, will leave Barrow in Britain and Cherbourg in France carrying the first commercial shipment to Japan of mixed-oxide (MOX) reactor fuel, made from plutonium and uranium. An estimated 446 kilograms of plutonium is contained in the 40 nuclear fuel elements enough fissile material to construct at least 60 nuclear bombs. The International Atomic Energy Agency classifies this plutonium fuel as a "category one" "direct use" weapons material, and estimates it would take just 1-3 weeks to convert into nuclear bombs.