Bacteria Used To Make Radioactive Metals Inert

Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday September 10, 2009 @05:12AM from the a-million-and-one-uses dept.

Serenissima writes "Researcher Judy Wall is experimenting with bacteria that can cleanse the radioactivity from toxic areas by rendering the heavy metals into non-toxic, inert versions. The technology is not without its flaws (the bacteria can't exist in an oxygenated environment yet), but it does have the potential to cleanse some of the world's hazardous sites. From the article: 'The bacteria Wall is studying are bio-corrosives and can change the solubility of heavy metals. They can take uranium and convert it to uraninite, a nearly insoluble substance.'"

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Re:Chemically inert, they mean by canonymous · 2009-09-10 06:21 · Score: 0, Redundant

Seriously, why not just say it can make heavy metals non-toxic, since the process works equally well for the non-radioactive versions.

Oh right, sensationalism.