Researchers try to clean nuclear sites with microbes (not radiodurans)

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/07/14/MN103893.DTL

Mining bacteria's appetite for toxic
waste -- Researchers try to clean nuclear
sites with microbes

David Perlman, Chronicle Science Editor
Monday, July 14, 2003

Scientists are experimenting with some unusual species of bacteria that can
thrive by cleaning up radioactive wastes left over from the Cold War when
nuclear weapons plants across the country were running full blast.

The problem exists wherever uranium has been mined, processed and made
into nuclear bombs. Almost 500 billion gallons of groundwater --
enough to supply 1. 5 million homes for a year -- remain contaminated
with uranium and other toxic chemicals in 36 states, the U.S. Department
of Energy estimates.

Another 800 million gallons of waste from uranium mines and weapons
plants lie buried in landfills, trenches and unlined tanks. More than 2
billion cubic feet of contaminated sediments remain to be cleaned -- a
mountain of radioactive and toxic dirt 2,000 times larger than Egypt's
Great Pyramid at Giza.

For many years, scientists have known about the unusual appetites of some
microbes, including the ability of certain strains to consume uranium and
other deadly poisons. Now researchers are starting to exploit that ability
as a way to clean up nuclear sites, a process called "bioremediation."

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There's some interesting speculation at the end of the article
re: splicing radiodurans genes into these more-mundane bacteria.
I wonder what will happen when they turn THAT loose in the
wild and it exchanges genes with, say, Strep.

During my 5-year tenure at the Hanford Reservation in the 90's, bioremediation was being studied quite a bit -- with millions of taxpayer dollars invested. AFAIK, experiments "in the wild" were conducted several times, almost all targeted at pervasive groundwater contamination increasingly seeping into the Columbia River.

It's the wave of the future! Did you know they found a bacteria that can live on TNT?

Coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

The Future's so bright, I gotta wear lead.