Six Diet members have sent a letter of support to a U.S. congressman who has raised concern over a planned shipment of mixed uranium-plutonium (MOX) fuel to Japan without an armed escort.

In the letter dated March 4, Yasuko Takemura, five other members of the Democratic Party of Japan and Mizuho Fukushima of the Social Democratic Party called on the U.S. to make sure the shipment of the toxic fuel is protected.

"We hope that common sense prevails, that the security plan is modified and that this shipment goes forward only with the rigorous escort this type of shipment demands," the letter says. It was addressed to U.S. Rep. Benjamin Gilman, chairman of the House Committee on International Relations.

Last month, Gilman told U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright that the House committee was disturbed that the U.S. State Department unveiled a Japanese plan to ship 450 kg of MOX fuel from Britain and France to Japan on two ships outfitted with special weapons, rather than on transport vessels with armed escorts.

The fuel is to be used by power plants operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company in Fukushima Prefecture and Kansai Electric Power Company in Fukui Prefecture.

Gilman, as well as the six Diet officials, are concerned for the security of the ships. They criticized the plan, saying it broke precedent and was in violation of an agreement between the U.S. and Japan on nuclear fuel shipments. In 1992, a shipment of reprocessed plutonium that arrived in Japan was accompanied by a Maritime Safety Agency ship.

Neither the Japanese nor American governments have given final approval to the shipping plan. The U.S. State Department is to brief the House committee on the issue this week, and a similar briefing is scheduled later for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Although only six signatures were on the letter sent to Gilman, Kyoto-based antinuclear activist Aileen Smith said Thursday that the letter is still being circulated among Diet members.