Radiation Absorbing Mineral Found In the Arctic

An anonymous reader writes "A mineral has recently been found that exhibits the astounding property of being able to remove radiation from water-based solutions. 'After coming into contact with the mineral, radioactive water becomes completely safe. Had this mineral been available to physicists after the Chernobyl or Three Mile Island disasters, the consequences might have been very different, as both accidents resulted in contamination from radioactive water.' Also, the article notes that although only grams of the material have been found, tons of it are needed; they are confident they could artificially reproduce it."

Comments

The applications are obvious

[teutonic_leech]

Of course this could find immediate applications in protecting our fresh water sources from radiation poisoning (accident or intentional). More importantly however, the long term benefit will be in figuring out how exactly the underlying process works and attempting to emulate or even improve it. The thought of being able to actively remove radiation from exposed material (not just liquids) is very exciting.