Protests as Moscow moves to build road on radioactive dump, 18 March 2020

Moscow authorities...began work on building a highway over a Soviet-era dump of radioactive materials, despite months of public protests and warnings from environmental campaigners. Greenpeace and other activists have long campaigned against the project to build an eight-lane motorway over the top of a tree-lined slope in southern Moscow that contains radioactive waste buried in the Soviet era. "Works are beginning next to the Moscow Polymetals Plant," Greenpeace Russia said in a statement, referring to the plant that originally dumped the waste. The former top-secret facility produced the radioactive element thorium for nuclear reactors until the 1970s...Activists say...dangerous radioactive particles could be spread around and end up in people's lungs. Citing a state report, Greenpeace says the site contains at least 60,000 tonnes of radioactive waste.