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IBARAKI, JAPAN - MAR. 22: Containers believed to be holding large amounts of plutonium and other nuclear materials bound for the United States were loaded onto a ship in Ibaraki Prefecture, northeast of Tokyo, on Tuesday. The British-flagged transport vessel Pacific Egret is expected to leave the port of Tokaimura soon in line with a 2014 Japan-U.S. agreement to return the plutonium to the United States. The plutonium had been provided to Japan in the 1970s by Britain and France as well as the United States for research purposes. It was being stored at a facility of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency in Ibaraki. Under the bilateral agreement, 331 kilograms of plutonium will be transported to the U.S. government-run Savannah River Site nuclear facility in South Carolina for final disposal. Highly enriched uranium will also be sent to the United States. At the Nuclear Security Summit in the Netherlands in March 2014, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe agreed to return the materials upon request from the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, which is seeking to strengthen control of nuclear materials. The port in Ibaraki was on heightened alert as the Pacific Egret arrived on Monday morning, with Japan Coast Guard patrol boats in position nearby. The plutonium in question was intended for use at the Fast Critical Assembly, a research facility of the JAEA. Of the 331 kg of plutonium, 93 kg had come from the United States, 236 kg from Britain and 2 kg from France. The total amount is enough to create 40 to 50 atomic bombs. According to a U.S. group monitoring nuclear issues, it will be the largest shipment of plutonium by sea since 1993 when the Akatsuki Maru of Japan carried 1 ton of the material from France to Japan for use at the Monju prototype fast-breeder nuclear reactor in Fukui Prefecture. The Pacific Egret and an escort vessel arrived in Kobe, western Japan, earlier this month after departing Britain in mid-January.