Garage sale
The week's news at a glance.
Zmeinogorsk, Russia
A Russian atomic scientist this week turned in 400 grams of weapons-grade plutonium that he had been storing in his garage for the past eight years. Leonid Grigorov had read about the Russian government’s new buyback program for radioactive materials, and expected to get $8.25 per milligram, for a total of $3,300,000. Instead, he was arrested for illegal storage of nuclear substances. Grigorov said that when the enrichment plant where he worked was closed in 1992, he asked authorities to dispose of the radioactive material but received no reply. So he put the plutonium in a lead container and stuck it in the garage. “As an expert, I was simply obliged to do this to prevent anything bad from happening,” Grigorov said.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
What should you be stockpiling for 'World War Three'?
In the Spotlight Britons advised to prepare after the EU tells its citizens to have an emergency kit just in case
By Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, The Week UK Published
-
Carnivore diet: why people are eating only meat
The Explainer 'Meatfluencers' are taking social media by storm but experts warn meat-only diets have health consequences
By Elizabeth Carr-Ellis, The Week UK Published
-
Scientists want to fight malaria by poisoning mosquitoes with human blood
Under the radar Drugging the bugs
By Devika Rao, The Week US Published