ST. PETERSBURG, November 18. /TASS/. Russia and the United States have removed from Antarctica the "dirty bomb" components — radioactive elements from autonomously operating equipment. They are not protected and could get into the hands of terrorists, head of the Russian Antarctic Expedition (RAE), Deputy Director of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute Valery Lukin told TASS on Wednesday.

"Four radioisotope thermoelectric generators and four sources of ionizing radiation, which were used in different equipment, have been removed from Antarctica within the framework of the joint Russian-American program," he said. "These radioactive sources may be used by international terrorism for making a dirty bomb," Lukin said, adding that "such attempts [at seizing unprotected radioactive devices] have been made, but not in Antarctica."