Japan-US nuclear deal is announced

Associated Press

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS

A major international summit to rein in the threat of nuclear terrorism opened Monday with Japan pledging to return to the United States more than 700 pounds of weapons-grade plutonium and a supply of highly enriched uranium.

The Nuclear Security Summit is the third in a series of meetings established after a landmark 2009 speech by President Barack Obama in which he said nonsecure nuclear material presents “the most immediate and extreme threat to global security.”

American and Japanese officials announced the deal — the meeting’s first important breakthrough — at the two-day summit in The Hague, Netherlands.

“This is a very significant nuclear security pledge and activity,” U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told reporters. “The material will be transferred to the United States for transformation into proliferation-resistant forms.”