Scientists eye algae for nuclear cleanup
EVANSTON, Ill. (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say common freshwater algaecan remove radioactive strontium from water and could be used to cleanup nuclear waste.
Scientists at Northwestern University and Argonne National Laboratorysay Strontium 90 is one of the more dangerous radioactive fissionmaterials created within a nuclear reactor and is present in the 80million gallons of radioactive waste sludge stored in the UnitedStates, a Northwestern release reported Monday.
Strontium 90 has a half-life of about 30 years and is chemically verysimilar to calcium and thus is drawn to bone, creating a high cancerrisk from exposure when strontium is bound in bones for many years.
The researchers say Closterium moniliferum, one of the bright greenalgae often seen in ponds, can sequester strontium in the form ofbarium-strontium-sulfate crystals.
The knowledge could lead to using algae for direct bioremediation ofwaste or accidental spills in the environment, they say.
"Nuclear waste cleanup is a problem we have to solve," seniorresearcher Derk Joester, who experienced Chernobyl's radioactivefallout when he was a teenager living in southern Germany, said.
"Even if all the nuclear reactors were to shut down tomorrow, theexisting volume of waste is great, and it is costly to store.
"We need to isolate highly radioactive 'high-level' waste from'low-level' waste," he said. "The algae offer a mechanism for doingthis, which we would like to understand and optimize."
Copyright 2011 by United Press International
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2 comments:
At this point, every possible way of nuclear clean up should be taken into account and we should also consider looking at other sources of green energy.
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