Science & Technology - Posted by Layne Cameron-Michigan State on Thursday, September 8, 2011 10:01 - 2 Comments 
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(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5) Loading ...‘Wired’ bacteria clean up nuclear waste
Nanowires found on the outside of Geobacters—tiny micro-organisms—do the brunt of the work in cleaning up nuclear waste, acting like managers to immobilize radioactive material and prevent it from leaching into groundwater. (Above is an artist's rendering of a generic bacteria.) (Credit: iStockphoto)
MICHIGAN STATE (US) — Researchers have unraveled the mystery of how microbes generate electricity while cleaning up nuclear waste, a finding that could prove beneficial at contaminated sites.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
“Geobacter bacteria are tiny micro-organisms that can play a major role in cleaning up polluted sites around the world,” says Gemma Reguera, a microbiologist at Michigan State University. “Uranium contamination can be produced at any step in the production of nuclear fuel, and this process safely prevents its mobility and the hazard for exposure.”
The ability of Geobacter to immobilize uranium has been well documented, but the new study identifies Geobacter’s conductive pili, or nanowires, as doing the yeoman’s share of the work. The findings are published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Nanowires, hair-like appendages found on the outside of Geobacters, are the managers of electrical activity during a cleanup.
“Our findings clearly identify nanowires as being the primary catalyst for uranium reduction,” Reguera says. “They are essentially performing nature’s version of electroplating with uranium, effectively immobilizing the radioactive material and preventing it from leaching into groundwater.”
The nanowires also shield Geobacter and allow it to thrive in a toxic environment, she adds.
Their effectiveness was proven during a cleanup in a uranium mill tailings site in Rifle, Colo. Researchers injected acetate into contaminated groundwater. Since this is Geobacters’ preferred food, it stimulated the growth of the Geobacter community already in the soil, which in turn, worked to remove the uranium.
Reguera and her team of researchers were able to genetically engineer a Geobacter strain with enhanced nanowire production. The modified version improved the efficiency of the bacteria’s ability to immobilize uranium proportionally to the number of nanowires while subsequently improving its viability as a catalytic cell.
Reguera has filed patents to build on her research, which could lead to the development of microbial fuel cells capable of generating electricity while cleaning up after environmental disasters.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Science and the U.S. Department of Energy funded the study.
More news from Michigan State University: http://news.msu.edu/
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2 Comments
Bill Gates
Uncle B
Bio-concentration, bio-accumulation, of radioactive products not good news, no matter how you spin it! Go back to college, find Rachel Carson’s ground breaking work, “Silent Spring” read it one more time, slowly, for its real message – no exams to pass this time, do not para-phrase, speed read, or consult Cliff’s Notes. Word for word, what, of value to your own biological self-form, your very body, was written here about bio-accumulation, bio-concentration, and its effect on the top-feeders (thats us) in this ecosystem? Next review Minimanta disease in Japan. Please tell others. Please explain to them that the dissolution of the Fuckoshima “problem” its dilution and washing to sea of the wastes was no real solution at all, only a set up for bio-concentration by the oceans near Japan. This article proves the mechanism by which this happens.
Factoid: radioactive products, outside further fissioning into heat and lesser active products, ie., in nature, are not created or destroyed save for the effect of time and their half-life, only dispersed and/or bio-concentrated as this article aptly points out.
Bill Gates works as we speak, in China, expelled from the U.S. by the Nuclear Establishment, the status quo that pushed him out for his nuke tech. as well as the government and the NCR Nuclear Regulatory Community. his mission, to create a nuclear furnace that will further fission wastes from Uranium fissioning process, yielding large amounts of heat energy, and a benign waste product. These same furnaces, once perfected will also accept as fuel Thorium a plentiful, cheap easy to mine easy to refine, easy to handle, ship, and store, fuel. Uranium Cartels, Uranium Monopolies fear this very much for obvious reasons, as do the folks with vested interests in Uranium fissioning furnaces as found at Fuckoshima.
1. This is great news.. this is the first draft of experiment. how data is made and generated.
2. Second part is publication of the results for the world to see review. and examine.
3. This type of research, data needs to be published for the world to see and review….. and comment on…