Activists Warn that Road Construction will Release Radioactive Dust

摘要

When Yelena Ageyeva moved to the Moskvorechye-Saburovo neighborhood in southeastern Moscow in 1987, she was aware that there was a radioactive site across the railroad tracks from her apartment building. The site, the Moscow Polymetals Plant's slag heap, contains tens of thousands of tons of radioactive waste left over after the extraction of thorium and uranium from ore. The factory ceased production of metals in 1996 for "environmental reasons," according to its website - it now produces weapons and military equipment - and the dump is now a hill half a kilometer wide sloping down to the banks of the Moscow River.