Bacteria Live Happily in Nuclear Waste

unassimilatible writes "Scientists studying the soil beneath a leaking Hanford nuclear waste storage tank have discovered more than 100 species of bacteria living in a toxic, radioactive environment that most would have thought inhospitable to all forms of life, reports the Seattle PI. For most living creatures, the nuclear and chemical waste in the underground storage tanks on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation is the deadliest mixture of toxins and radioactive muck on the planet. For certain bacteria, however, this toxic goop left over from decades of nuclear weapons production appears to be just a second home. 'Scientifically, it's pretty interesting stuff,' said a microbiologist at the lab. 'The material in the tank is self-boiling and quite hot, so it's not just radioactive and harsh chemicals but also in extreme heat.' The discovery eventually could help researchers better understand how microorganisms can survive severe contaminants -- and how to use the bacteria to help clean up toxic environments. Hanford was an important site for the top-secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb during World War II. For 40 years, it processed plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons arsenal. Today, work there centers on a $50 billion to $60 billion cleanup, to be finished by 2035. See also, the related AP story."

Comments

Re:Why is anyone surprised?

[Daniel Dvorkin]

And of course here there's a great energy source: the radioactive sludge the bacteria are living in. I'm not suggesting that they actually use the radioactivity directly (I don't think we've ever found a critter that can do that) but there must be lots of interesting chemistry going on in those tanks, creating all kinds of high-energy compunds the bacteria can digest.

I would be surprised

[Spamalamadingdong]

I don't see how bacteria could survive and grow on energy from radiolysis while their own cytoplasm is being damaged by that same radiolysis.

It is far easier to believe that the bacteria are consuming the organic materials in the radioactive sludge. The Hanford wastes are from the Solvex and Purex processes, which (if I understand correctly) used the different affinities of various ions for organic vs. aqueous solvents to separate uranium and plutonium from fission products. The spent, contaminated solvents wound up in the now-problematic tanks and their continued chemical breakdown under the radiolytic assault is one of the reasons they are so hard to handle.

It does make one wonder: could these bacteria be used to consume the organic matter in the tanks and reduce them to solutions in water? You would have to dilute the waste for the bacteria and re-concentrate the products (say, by evaporation) but getting rid of the organic solvents would be a big plus.

Self-boiling?

[luigi6699]

Um... "self-boiling?" Does that mean that it will boil of it's own accord? If that's the case, why aren't we using this stuff to power generators? (boiling sludge -> water -> vapor -> drives a turbine...)

Re:Why is anyone surprised?

[CheshireCatCO]

I'm especially not surprised, since I've read reports of bacteria that have been found in the cooling pools for the spent nuclear fuel rods at reactor sites. Apparently, the little buggers are related to the guys that live in the hypersaline environments. The same celluar repair machinery works for both the saline damage and the radiation damage.

happy bacteria?

[pedantic bore]

Bacteria live in all sorts of odd environments that would kill people. Not all organisms have the same weaknesses; many examples spring to mind. Sheep love eating poison ivy, which would make many people ill. People love eating chocolate, which is poison to dogs. I've heard that there are even people who can watch movies starring Madonna with no ill effects.

cockroaches find their way in a microwave

[Anonymous Coward]

I have seen live roaches running around in a microwave oven while it was on. Apparently the coverage is pretty spotty.

This couple had cockroaches living in their microwave. Perhaps this isn't so impressive, since the roaches mostly stayed out of the cooking compartment while the microwave was on. The rest of the house had only the very occasional roach (I can verify this) but the microwave was infested. Very odd.

Apparently the roaches liked it there, and various cleaning supplies bothered them not at all. Boiling a cup of vinegar in their home did nothing. He wanted to get rid of them, but he couldn't poison the microwave without rendering it unfit for food. Finally he put it into the freezer for a few weeks. Problem solved, and permanently (they never came back.)

What can we learn from this story?

Keep a decent house.

While extremely hardy, San Diego cockroaches are unsuited to winter.

Beware used kitchen appliances, especially at my garage sale. :~(

Re:They are damaged, but

[mikael]

Well, I am suprised because I thought that radiation damages all DNA no matter what cell it's in. I can understand that the effects on humans, but still suprised that bacteria can handle this. It turns out that the DNA in the bacteria IS damaged, but it is able to repair at a fast enough rate and accurately too:

There was an article on the analysis of the effects of Chernobyl. Apparently one side effect of the radiation was that plants and other organisms had tripled the number of copies of various genes. I guess it goes down to probability: Given a radiation level of a known amount, how many copies of enzymes/RNA do you need to guarantee that repair can be performed before the enzyme/RNa/whatever is damaged itself.

Are the bacteria or Archaea?

[nyekulturniy]

Domain Archaea is one-celled, but is vastly different from Kingdom Monera (or bacteria). They have different membrane lipids, don't have peptogylcon in the cell wall, and phyla of Archaea can live in the strangest places, such as hot smokers, extremely salt seas, weird chemical environments, and other things that would kill bacteria.