New hope for reducing uranium contamination

[ecoli]

The Georgia Institute of technology may have found a new way to get rid of uranium contamination. Certain bacteria that live in the subsurface soils can convert uranium contamination into an insoluble form by releasing a phosphate compound.

 

This bacteria has potential for cleaning up uranium contamination at nuclear power plants as well as threats from nuclear weapons, giving us a new way to keep nuclear power safer.

 

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/index.php?feed=Science&article=UPI-1-20060330-18021100-bc-us-bacteria.xml

[RyanJ]

Thats nuts - bacteria that eat nuclear waste, what next?

 

In the end its not going to make the problem go away, the radiation will still be there. We need to find a real way to contain the waste... a small black hole outside the solar system would be brilliant for this job but I can't really see a way to get rid of the radiation with our technology, we are limited to locking it away for millions of years.

 

Good find, a very interesitng article!

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones

[ecoli]

They don't really 'eat' the waste, RyanJ. Rather, they contain the radiation in chemical bonds.

[RyanJ]

They don't really 'eat' the waste, RyanJ. Rather, they contain the radiation in chemical bonds.

 

Thats what I meant, its eats it metaphorically afteralllwhy would it eat something it has no use for (when takes in its literal context I mean).

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan Jones