WORLD IN BRIEF : JAPAN : U.S. OKs Plutonium Shipment

The Bush Administration has formally approved a plan to ship a ton of highly toxic plutonium from France to Japan aboard a freighter for use in Tokyo’s controversial nuclear power program. In a letter last week to key congressional committees, the State Department said Japan had come up with a plan for transporting the plutonium “that constitutes a sound basis” for going ahead with the shipment this fall. The United States maintains control over the plutonium because it was reprocessed from spent uranium fuel rods originally provided by the United States.