Officials have recovered 14 uranium pellets from a steel container buried in a man's back yard in the German town of Lauenfoerder. The man wrote to German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the end of last year saying he wanted to turn the pellets in.
The pellets were only enriched to about 4 percent. To be weapons grade uranium must be enriched to at least 80-90 percent. Many officials are asking how the man came to be in possession of the pellets and why it took so long to retrieve them.
According to Christian Gottfriedsen, Lower Saxony's chief prosecutor, formal charges are yet to be laid as the investigation is not yet complete. The man is likely to be charged with unauthorised possession of nuclear fuel.
