Bacteria that digest radioactive compounds?

[undergroundpanther]

http://www.princeton.edu/main/news/archive/S16/13/72E53/index.xml?section=topstories
That subterranean world, Onstott said, is a lightless pool of hot, pressurized salt water that stinks of sulfur and noxious gases humans would find unbreathable. But the newly discovered bacteria, which are distantly related to the Firmicutes division of microbes that exist near undersea hydrothermal vents, flourish there.

"The radiation allows for the production of lots of sulfur compounds that these bacteria can use as a high-energy source of food," Onstott said. "For them, it's like eating potato chips."

[goforit]

1. That is good news!

[damntexdem]

3. Not really.

It just means that there are a lot of radioactive bacteria living somewhere.

[Benhurst]

2. Thanks, undergroundpanther. Good find.

Recommended :bounce: #1

[Speck Tater]

4. No. they do NOT digest radioactive compounds. You mis-read.

Radioactive decay produces sulfur compounds that the bacteria then digest. But even if they did digest radioactive compounds, they would then become radioactive bacteria. NO chemical change can ever remove radioactivity. And if animals further up the food chain digest radioactive bacteria then they concentrate that radioactivity in their own bodies. This is NOT a solution radioactive waste.

[Benhurst]

6. No, but it is a fascinating look into what may survive if we succeed in

destroying the earth as we know it.

[undergroundpanther]

7. Yeah, I thought the same thing

I just found the article while searching for something else thought it was interesting,that's all.

[undergroundpanther]

8. Maybe not

I did another search on it, got this..


Some agricultural lands located in the Vromos Bay area, near the Black Sea coast, Southeastern Bulgaria, have been contaminated with radioactive elements (uranium, radium and thorium) and toxic heavy metals (copper, cadmium and lead) as a result of mining and mineral processing of polymetallic ores. Laboratory experiments carried out with soil samples from these lands revealed that an efficient remediation of the soils was achieved by an in situ treatment method based on the activity of the indigenous soil microflora. The treatment was connected with the dissolution of the contaminants in the upper soil horizons and their transfer into the deeply located soil horizons (mainly to the horizon B2) where they were immobilized as different insoluble compounds.The dissolution of contaminants was connected with the activity of both heterotrophic and chemolithotrophic aerobic microorganisms and the immobilization was due mainly to the anaerobic sulphate-reducing bacteria. The activity of these microorganisms was enhanced by suitable changes in the levels of some essential environmental factors such as water, oxygen and nutrient contents in the soil. On the basis of the above-mentioned laboratory results, the method was then applied under real field conditions in a heavily contaminated experimental plot of land located in the Vromos Bay area. Within 8 months of treatment, the contents of radioactive elements and toxic heavy metals in the soil were decreased below the relevant permissible levels.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VBT-420B1X9-N&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=9e076c4e4f7d454e7fc1e59634d0668d
Where did the radioactive compounds GO?? Why have the levels dropped after the bacteria was put in the soil?

[Igel]

11. It's right there.

"The treatment was connected with the dissolution of the contaminants in the upper soil horizons and their transfer into the deeply located soil horizons (mainly to the horizon B2) where they were immobilized as different insoluble compounds.The dissolution of contaminants was connected with the activity of both heterotrophic and chemolithotrophic aerobic microorganisms and the immobilization was due mainly to the anaerobic sulphate-reducing bacteria."

I don't do biology well, but I'll try to translate.

The contaminants in the upper layers of the soil were dissolved. Bacteria converted the contaminants into a form that could dissolve in water; water soaks into the ground, so the contaminants, radioactive or not, penetrated farther into the soil. When they reached a deep enough level they ran into other backterial, bacterial that are "anaerobic sulfate-reducing' bacteria--i.e., they take sulfur compounds and reduce them to something closer to elemental sulfur. At that point the compounds with the heavy metal/radioactive contaminants are no longer water soluble; they precipate out and sit there, fairly inert. The B2 horizon is the subsoil, typically with a lot more clay in it (but maybe organics ... nod to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil_horizon#B_Horizon for the B2-horizon stuff).

Down that deep the contaminants aren't a problem: You're unlikely to pick them up, they won't go airborne, and most food plants won't find them; trees and the like could. In any event, they won't be a large problem, and the radioactive component can decay. The article says that by helping the bacteria dissolve the compounds in the soil, they can be moved to the subsoil more quickly--soil remediation.

[lonestarnot]

5. Old lorrie now has a dumping ground for the body when it's over.

:evilgrin:

[goforit]

9. kick!!!

[lovuian]

10. well Bless their little hearts

good for them Great discovery