Six Diet members have sent a letter of support to a U.S. congressman who has raised concern over a planned shipment of mixed uranium-plutonium (MOX) fuel to Japan without an armed escort.
In the letter dated March 4, Yasuko Takemura, five other members of the Democratic Party of Japan and Mizuho Fukushima of the Social Democratic Party called on the U.S. to make sure the shipment of the toxic fuel is protected.
"We hope that common sense prevails, that the security plan is modified and that this shipment goes forward only with the rigorous escort this type of shipment demands," the letter says. It was addressed to U.S. Rep. Benjamin Gilman, chairman of the House Committee on International Relations.