Russian Scientist Gives Up Plutonium Kept at Home

A Russian scientist reportedly provided eight containers of plutonium 238 to police today after storing the radioactive material in his garage for eight years, according to Reuters (see GSN, Oct. 20).

Leonid Grigorov discovered the 14 ounces of material in the garbage at his laboratory near the border with Kazakhstan and took the plutonium home to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, Reuters reported. He turned the material over to local authorities after a newspaper advertised a reward for people to surrender weapons.

“As an expert, I knew that I had to (hide it) to avoid tragic consequences,” Grigorov was quoted by ITAR-Tass as saying.

Plutonium 238 could be combined with other materials to create a radiological “dirty bomb,” experts said (Reuters, Nov. 2).

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