One of the main problems of using radioactive fuel is dumping its exhaust waste. Moreover, the risk to the environment is not so much the material as the migration of radionuclides in soil and air. But recently a group of Russian scientists in the field of radioactive waste disposal have discovered bacteria that can help in the disposal of the threat to the environment of radioactive material.
The discovery was made in the study of underground waters of deep burial “Seversky”, which is the burial of liquid radioactive wastes of Siberian chemical combine (SKhK), owned by state Corporation “Rosatom”. Using the methods of molecular genetics, scientists from the Institute of physical chemistry and electrochemistry named after Frumkin and Federal research center for biotechnology RAS detected in groundwater samples near the store bacteria that can transfer ions of different radionuclides (including uranium with plutonium) in an inactive form.
First the data indicates that to create conditions for the “work” of bacteria is quite simple. In addition, microorganisms can be used in the storage of waste as a means to protect against spread of radiation, and on the factory floor and even in places man-made disasters. Now the researchers plan to further study the behavior of bacteria and develop ways of their implementation in processes of radioactive materials. As told to the authors in an interview with “Radioactive waste”,
“The obtained results allow to say that this approach can be used when creating a biogeochemical barrier for radionuclide when closing paragraphs of deep burial of liquid radioactive waste.”
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Discovered bacteria that can destroy nuclear waste
Vladimir Kuznetsov