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24Mar14

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Japan to turn over sensitive nuclear material to U.S. for destruction

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Japan will hand over "hundreds of kilograms of sensitive nuclear material" to the United States for destruction as part of the efforts to "help prevent unauthorized actors, criminals, or terrorists from acquiring such materials," the White House said Monday.

At the 2014 Nuclear Security Summit in The Hague, the Netherlands, U.S. President Barack Obama and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe pledged to remove and dispose all highly- enriched uranium (HEU) and separated plutonium stored at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA)'s Fast Critical Assembly, the White House said in a statement.

"This material, once securely transported to the United States, will be sent to a secure facility and fully converted into less sensitive forms," it said.

"The plutonium will be prepared for final disposition. The HEU will be downblended to low enriched uranium (LEU) and utilized for civilian purposes."

The White House said the Fast Critical Assembly in Japan came online in 1967 for the purpose of studying the physics characteristics of fast reactor cores.

[Source: Xinhua, Washington, 24Mar14]

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