The nuclear research and development agency has shipped uranium-contaminated soil to an undisclosed location in the United States for disposal, officials said.

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency on Monday sent 290 cu. meters of radioactive soil from the port of Kobe, part of 3,000 cu. meters of contaminated soil from a uranium ore plant in Tottori Prefecture, said Atsushi Oku, an official of the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry, which oversees the agency.

He declined to disclose the destination of the ship, but Kyodo News said it was headed for Everett, Wash.

The soil will be sent to a company that will extract the uranium, Oku said, declining to name the company.

However, the watchdog group Citizen's Nuclear Information Center said the soil would be sent to a firm in Utah.

In 1988, abnormally high levels of radioactivity were found in soil in Yurihama, Tottori Prefecture, where the agency's predecessor had a plant that extracted uranium from uranium ore for enrichment, according to CNIC.

In 2004, the Supreme Court ruled that the contaminated soil must be removed.

Officials had been looking for a place inside Japan for disposal of the soil but could not find a suitable location, Oku said.

Japan currently does not have facilities to dispose of radioactive byproducts from uranium enrichment.

CNIC criticized the move, saying that "countries which are unable to handle their own radioactive waste are not qualified to produce such waste."