German Buries Uranium in Yard

German authorities have unearthed a small quantity of low-enriched uranium reactor fuel from a residential garden, raising questions about security conditions at German nuclear power plants, Reuters reported yesterday.

The 14 fuel pellets, enriched to 4 percent uranium 238, were acquired under still-unknown circumstances by a German man who wrote Chancellor Angela Merkel in December to report his holding.

He placed the uranium in a steel container, wrapped it in plastic and buried the package in his garden in the town of Lauenfoerder, according to Reuters.

“How do pellets get out of a nuclear reactor?” asked Environment Ministry spokeswoman Jutte Kremer-Heye. “That’s not supposed to happen” (Reuters, March 1).