PCBs from military bases may be sent back to U.S.

The U.S. Department of Defense hopes to ship over 3,000 tons of materials containing polychlorinated biphenyls stored at military bases in Japan to the United States for recycling or disposal, officials at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo said Wednesday.

The department will release an environmental assessment of the shipping procedure finding "no significant impact," but recommending that the materials be transported to the U.S. instead of stored indefinitely, the U.S. officials said.

The decision is pending the results of a public comment period. If approved, the assessment would allow the import of U.S.-manufactured PCBs, which account for just over a third of those on U.S. military facilities in Japan, the officials said. The import of Japanese manufactured PCBs would require the U.S. Environment Protection Agency to exempt these materials from a ban on such imports.