A ship believed to be carrying plutonium and other nuclear materials left a port in the village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Tuesday in line with a 2014 Japan-U.S. agreement to return the deadly material to the United States.
The plutonium was provided to Japan for research purposes in the 1970s by Britain, France and the United States. It was stored at a facility in Tokai run by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency, as the government tried in vain to achieve a nuclear fuel cycle.
On Tuesday afternoon, the British transport ship Pacific Egret left the port for the United States amid heightened security after taking on several containers in the morning.