World

Japan Turning Over Nuclear Stockpile To U.S.

​Japan is getting rid of its decades-old stockpile of bomb-ready nuclear materials and handing them over to the U.S. for conversion.

Japan Turning Over Nuclear Stockpile To U.S.
The White House / Pete Souza

​Japan is getting rid of its decades-old stockpile of bomb-ready nuclear materials and handing them over to the U.S. for conversion. 

The announcement from U.S. and Japanese officials came during President Obama's visit to the two-day nuclear summit in The Hague. (Via Bloomberg

This makes Japan the 13th nation to agree to such a deal since the Obama administration began its push for nuclear security back in 2010. (Via The White House

Time's Nate Rawlings calls it "President Obama's biggest success yet in securing nuclear materials."

According to the BBC, Japan had enough nuclear fuel to make up to 50 nuclear weapons.

As The New York Times notes, Japan is expected to turn over 700 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium and possibly as much as 450 pounds of highly enriched uranium.

Japan is actually returning the materials to the U.S., which originally lent them to Tokyo back in the 1960s for research purposes. 

For years, China has been sharply critical of Japan — demanding an explanation for why it needed to store nuclear materials despite being a non-nuclear weapons country. (Via CCTVArirang

​​And ​Iran too, wrapped up in nuclear negotiations of its own, had expressed concerns. As the International Business Times notes, Iranian officials repeatedly accused Japan of a double standard given its stockpile.

On Monday, Italy and Belgium also agreed to transfer their excess nuclear materials to the U.S.