Washington, Moscow to boost joint efforts to prevent dirty bomb threat

Having a longstanding experience in the field of dealing with nuclear materials, the US and Russia intend to lead international efforts to fight the threat of a "dirty bomb" - a weapon of radioactive contamination, US Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham said in Washington Thursday.

In his words, after this March's international conference on the fight against the threat of a dirty bomb, 140 countries joined the cause.

The US and Russian governments believe this threat is a serious matter addressed now by a few expert working groups established on the conference results, the secretary said.

Russian Nuclear Power Minister Alexander Rumyantsev on his part told journalists that a bilateral agreement on spent nuclear fuel transportation from research reactors on the territory of the former USSR might as well be regarded as the two countries' contribution to the efforts to prevent radioactive materials from falling into unreliable hands.